Yep, that Mind is Lost!
by urbanlegend
Summary: A quirky girl and her equally quirky car, partner up to fight an evil threat. A recipe for destruction, how will her uncanny abilities affect the power struggle on earth and at what cost can they be used? Update: Lost.
1. The owner and car bond

A/N: I do not own Transformers. I do not own Mountain Dew. I do, however, own the Honda Civic SI described in this story and it's name is the Blue Meanie. The main difference between the Meanie in this story and the Meanie in my driveway is that my Meanie is 100 percent Decepticon. You're my boy, Blue. You're my boy.

Any character in this story that can't be found on Teletraan-1 (The Transformers Wikia) or any official list of toy, comic, cartoon, video game or movie characters are mine. Special the cool black femme. She's totally mine.

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Conventional is not a word that a person could use to describe Lorentina "Tina" Alba McIlroy Littorio. The tall Irish-Italian girl from Maryland, with the mile long name and the big brown eyes, could be a dead ringer for Natalie Portman's sister, a likeness which often annoys her. While beautiful, Natalie has a presence that makes her seem angelic, Tina on the other hand is more of the devilish type. From her blue streaked "Victoria Beckham" bob, to the half sleeve tribal tattoo on her left arm or her odd tendency to dress like an '80s throw back, she is not, by any means, normal. Throw in the occasional Burt Bacharach or Dean Martin CD playing on the ancient boombox in her garage, the comical young network security technician is a stand out.

Tina dances around her garage in an pair of tartan plaid shorts, a Clash Teeshirt and pink flip flops waving the chamois around like a Vegas Showgirl on crack. Her normally well structured bob, now held back in a fat headband, was sticking up on top of her head like the crest of a rooster. She belted out Patsy Cline at the top of her lungs only pausing to take a breath between lines. It was late Saturday morning, a day she religiously dedicated to the careful detailing of her pride and joy which she named the Blue Meanie.

Tina has an immense love of cars. Well, cars, planes, trains, boats... just about anything with a motor and a nice paint job. Being the middle child and only girl raised by their Uncle Salvo, a mechanic who specialized in the restoration of classic muscle cars, Tina and her two brothers Lou and Andre, all shared the interest. Where as the boys preferred to stick with the muscle cars, Tina tends to modify only imports. She was, is and always shall be the black sheep of the Littorio clan. The quirky brunette smiles admirably at the fiji blue 2007 Honda Civic Si coupe sitting in her driveway as she saunters over to it, trailing the index finger of her right hand along the glass on it's driver's side, inspecting the paint for any new scratches.

She loves the car. She often jokes that due to her often stressful and long hours at work, the Meanie is her only boyfriend. "It's great you know," Tina jokingly says to her friends at work. "The car never talks back, never tells me to slow down, never says 'you're not doing it right', never ever says 'I want to ride with someone else', never complains...' it really is the perfect man." Most of her girlfriends thought she was nuts for saying such things, but most of her guy friends appreciated it and her love of all cars. Tina walks to the front of the car and stands facing it, one leg out, both hands rested on her hips. "Okay, sweetheart it's time for your weekly bath." She says with a warm smile on her face.

Bathing the Meanie has become a way for her to unwind from the often hectic work week. She had moved up into the hills to get away from people and enjoyed her seclusion, hidden amongst some trees, the house sat at the end of a very long cul-du-sac. Her work load had almost tripled since the terrorist incident in Mission City earlier the summer before. Working on keeping the network security intact was more than a full time job, it was her life.

Bending over to fill the bucket with a nice cocktail of imported car wash and water, she adds her favorite lamb's wool mitt to the mix. "I missed you all week." She peers past the Si to the ancient Toyota Corolla sitting at the end of the driveway, frowning at the less than exciting car. "I hate driving the Toy but it's such a piece of shit, I don't have to worry about it anywhere." She rubs hard at a streak left by a dead bug's butt on the hood, pursing her lips as she concentrates on not removing any paint, "I couldn't take you out in the typical morning traffic. I'd stress every second about other drivers being stupid and hitting you." She spots a nastier streak on the hood and bends down to inspect it's nature. "I need to stop driving you through clouds of locusts or whatever that was last night." Removing the dried bug guts, she pulls the hose around from behind her and rinses off the front. Smiling at the clear, smooth blue curve of metal before her. "My god you are a gorgeous thing."

Tina continues washing the car and finishes all the while, holding her normal conversation with the car. The tape ends and she jumps up to go change it. Choosing a mix tape of some of her favorite late '80s, early '90s bands, she begins dancing again as Siouxsie and the Banshee's 'Superstion' and blasts out from inside the garage. She grabs the chamois and bobs her head around as she dries the car in the shade of her carport, singing out the lines, "It glittered and it gleamed/ for the arriving beauty queen/ a ring and a car/ now you're the prettiest by far..." She giggled at how ridiculous she must look. _Oh well, she thought, that's the beauty of no neighbors._ "So, when we're done with this, well go for a nice long ride down by the beach. Well, a bit later tonight when it's cooler maybe?" She asks into the air as she wipes the last of the water off of the car. Finishing up, Tina walks back into the garage to grab a beer, polish and an applicator.

"Okay, big boy, beauty shop time." She sipsthe beer and remembers that she forgot a polishing towel. "Crap. I'll be back." She pauses, lost in thought for a second and chuckles again to herself, "I must be crazy." _I spend most of my time talking to my car._ "I'll only worry when you start answering back." She heads into the house to grab the towel from the dryer, where she'd seen it last.

A few minutes pass as Tina has to rifle through the clean laundry on the couch to find the towel, before she can return to the driveway. She stops for a second and stares at her car curiously. Somehow, it had moved backwards a few feet, the outline of the wet pavement obvious now that the car had shifted. _Did I leave the Ebrake off_? She rushes to the driver's side, clicking the unlock button on her key fob, opens the door and checks the emergency brake. _Nope, it's still up and the car is in neutral._ Tina scrunches her face up in confusion before climbing back out of the car and shutting the door again. She walks back to her work bench and grabs her beer, taking a swig of it, the girl looks out of the door into the large front yard, hoping to spot anything or anyone suspicious. Tina has the other two keys locked up in a safe in her bedroom. She has the one remaining key in her hand. _How did it move?_ She finishes the beer, grabs another and returns to the driveway. "Okay, are you pulling a K.I.T.T. on me?" As always there was no response, thankfully. She maybe weird, but she's not nuts.

The tall girl sits on the cool pavement next to the car, preparing to wax the grille first. She thinks about how all that her life has consisted of for the last year is work and playing with her car. Maybe she should try socializing more with coworkers._ Nah_. She shakes her head in frustration as she layers the wax on the grille. She sighs tiredly and says to herself, "I am nuts aren't I?" She rests her head on the cool, smooth bumper.

"No. You're not." A male voice answers her.

Tina sits back, eyes wide open, mouth almost on the floor."W-w-who said that?"

"I did."

Tina looks around frantically from side to side, trying to see who is the culprit playing tricks on her. "And who is 'I'?"

A disembodied but friendly laugh travels around her, "The same 'I' you've talked to every Saturday morning for the last year."

The tall brunette jumps up and walks backward into her garage. "Okay smart ass, whoever you are, come out or..." She thinks hard about what else to say. She must be nuts. Too much work and not enough time off are killing her brain. _Oh god. Oh no! _"Show yourself!" She yells out into her yard.

"If you insist."

She stares in awe as her beloved car starts up, backs out from under the car port. For a split second, it almost appears to explode as body panels break apart, move, and expand to a soundtrack of mechanical noises, gears grinding and metal scraping as it shifts. The car appears to turn in on it self and rise up from where it is parked. The shifting form begins to take on a human like shape. Her eyes are hurting from strain as she watches the definite humanoid form finish it's transformation in her drive way. Her car just turned into a 15 foot tall robot in her yard. She looks down at her beer bottle in shock and chucks it into the grass next to the driveway in fear letting out a small shriek as she does so.

"Oh. My.God. I've lost my freakin' mind. I'm seeing shit." Tears begin to stream down her face and she trembles. "If I'd known it get this bad I would have taken a vacation when they insisted." She stumbles back from the form in front of her, whimpering in fear, she trips over the hose and falls onto her butt.

"You're not crazy, Lorentina Alba McIlroy Littorio. You're not seeing things." The robot bends down to her level studying her carefully, startled by it's moving towards her, she scuttles backwards still whimpering. "Settle down, you have an elevated heartbeat and it's hot out. You've had a beer and not enough water, you could injure yourself in this heat"

She is scared but curious at the same time as she stares up in awe, looking at the blue panels covering the being. She recognizes parts here and there on the being. Her car is in there somewhere. The overly expensive custom built headlights she had made for it now on it's chest. The mesh wheels she had put on last year now on it's ankles and shoulders. She rubs her eyes and stares again, still seeing the same thing in front of her. "There's no way this is real."

"Oh, it's very real." The expression on the thing's face is very serious.

"I-I-I... I don't know what to say." She's practically shrieking,

"How about hello?" the robot smiles at her.

_This is soooooo strange. It must be a dream, but hey if it saves my ass from getting lazered into the next life, I'll play along._ "Um..Hello?"

"You aren't crazy. I know you know what I am."

"Yesss. But I thought they, the ones in the reports, were the only ones...And the reports... I thought it was all some sort of weird code. I didn't know it was meant to be taken literally." She looks genuinely confused. Her job made her privy to sensitive information. One such example of that information being a report about how to prevent future system attacks from robot alien life. Suddenly, she has the feeling that her job's level of importance just sky rocketed in her mind.

The giant robot shakes his head and laughs, still smiling. "I'm sure many think that, it's better that way."

Tina gets up and walks over to him slowly and cautiously, wiping the tears from her face as she does so. She's calming down and not as scared as she was before. If he meant to hurt her, he surely would have done so by now. She guesses it's a him. He sounds like a he, looks like a he. She stands about five feet away from him, peering up in wonder and amazement at his size. "What are you?"

"You've seen the reports. I'm an Autonomous Robotic Organism from the planet Cybertron."

"Autobots..." She whispers under her breath and snorts in disbelief. "My department didn't get the whole reports, we just knew what to look for on the info to secure, file or destroy. I've been interested in it ever since. Even if I thought it was odd. My god, you're real." She reaches out and touches his leg, her eyes widening quickly as she realizes he is indeed solid and not a dream. "But what are you doing here? In my yard none the less? It's been a year since I bought the car. Why are you showing yourself to me?" She eyes him suspicously. "Am I in trouble or something?"

"No. You are not in trouble, Tina. I just felt that it is time, you are ready. You're close friends with Glen and Maggie who also have a guardian. I know they haven't told you anything and that your job is vague about what you know of us but it's only a matter of time before you too are at risk. You're too good at what you do and with your growing responsibilities and obvious intelligence, it's only a matter of time before you learn more. Your reputation and curiosity precedes you, Tina." He smiles again, his blue optics staring back at her, she peers into them in amazement. Their intricacy is stunning. He stares back at her with an entertained grin on his face, as he stands up, "Plus I thought it'd be funny."

"Funny?" She looks confused at his statement. "You nearly gave me a heart attack."

"Sorry."

She thinks about her step-cousin and high school friend Glenn back in Maryland. Whatever it was the Maggie had dragged him into, Glen had seen a ghost last summer. He never told her what it was but it left both he and Maggie changed. Shortly after whatever happened to them, they and some a few other 'Pros' or friends, were offered jobs within the Federal Government or internally promoted for those who already worked for it. Tina had been working with Maggie at NSA but was out with a nasty stomach bug following a business trip to Texas, when the action in Qatar and Mission City occurred. They didn't tell her much, but all of the analysts and security specialists associated with the divisions used during the event where moved around shortly there after and given new jobs. Courtesy of a recommendation from Maggie, Tina was given a chance to move to transfer to an office in southern California. No problem there. It was all starting to come together now. _Glenn is soooo getting a phone call this afternoon. Maggie too_. "So, um... what's your name?" She raises her eyebrows in uncertainty.

"Well, it certainly isn't the Blue Meanie." The grin on his face makes her feel a little less uncomfortable but she still frowns at his answer, "It's Volt."

"Volt?!" She didn't see that coming.

"Yes."

"Weird." She shifts uncomfortably then sits down, he sits down as well. The size difference between the two, still great. "Oh my god." She puts her hand to her mouth in shock.

"What is the matter?" He looks at her curiously.

"I just realized that you know sooo much about me and I don't know anything about you. That is so embarrassing." She thinks of all the babbling she has done the last year while washing and waxing the car. "Oh, my god. The modifications I did! You must hate me. They didn't hurt did they? I'm sorry. I ..."

He waves his left hand, cutting her off mid sentence."It's okay, Tina. I like them. Specially the lights. It stung a little but I really didn't mind."

"Weird." A slight smile crosses her face then she begins to think of all the other transgressions she's commited in the car. "Oh man. I'm sorry about the mods anyway. And the bad singing. Oh, and the speeding and driving really hard."

"It's okay," he smirks at her playfully, "I like it rough."

Her eyes pop open in shock and she howls in laughter, "Whoa!!! You're a freak!" They both laugh at her response.

"When they, Maggie and Glenn described you, they did so perfectly. I volunteered for the job after Glenn mentioned what kind of car you were looking for. Some human friends of ours set it up."

"But you have a VIN number that is in the the registry..."

"Yes, the original car never made it to the dealership. I was, er, replaced in route." He smiled sheepishly.

She let out an ornery laugh, "Slick." and gave him a thumbs up."I take it there's some good parts floating around somewhere on Ebay then?"

Volt raises and optic ridge at her and smiles, "Perhaps there are."

"Wow, well, that explains the suspension then. When I saw it, I'd never seen anything quite like it. I preformed exactly as I want a suspension to. I had no urge to change it. This is soooo cool." She remembers another conversation she'd had in earshot of him."Oh, I'm sorry about the Camaro thing. When I said I wanted one and I was going to trade the SI in for one when they came out." Now she had the sheepish grin. "That obviously won't be happening now."

"No problem. You didn't know. I know how much you love the SI but that's because you've never felt what I can actually do..." He raises his optic ridge again playfully. "Speed wise."

She shakes her head and laughs, "I think you know me far too well."

"Well it has been a year now."

"True, true. Now that I'm calming down, it's all good. You know, you probably will call me nuts for this but I always wondered what would it be like to have a conversation with my car and have it talk back. This is freaky but way cool." Her smile has grown to a full out grin. She stands up and walks around him, studying everything about him. Every angle, the parts of the car she learned to love so much and where they are placed on his frame. "My god. This is amazing. You're real. Wow." She walks back in front of him and looks up the awe still in her eyes,"Man, Volt, this is gonna sound way weird but I'm gonna say it anyway. Damn, you are a good looking car. I see the same transfers to your robot mode as well."

Volt stands leans back in surprise at the strange and unexpected compliment from the human. "Um, thank you, Tina." He doesn't quiet know what to say beyond that.

"Really, I mean it. I'm totally amazed. I've spent most of my life around machines and I see them differently than you'd expect most humans to. You're like a piece of art, man. So wicked. Plus, this is like iRobot but waaaaaay cooler."

Glenn and Maggie weren't kidding when they told him that he was in for a surprise with Tina. Glenn's words were along the lines of "Man, if that girl could populate the world with talking cars, she would. Once you show yourself to her, she'll never leave you alone. My grandmamma thinks she's crazy. Sometimes I agree. Oh and she's a technology freak. Loves gadgets. Watch out for whatever new gadget is on the market, it may get attached to you." After a year, he had decided that she was definitely "good people" as Glenn had also mentioned. Maggie told him of Tina's unconventional approach to everything. "She'll do what she wants regardless of what everyone else thinks. She follows no mold. Smart as a whip but as strange. She's different. You will not be short on entertainment with her." and Maggie was right,Tina is. After all the time, he had gotten used to the offbeat girl and he appreciated her vibrant outlook on life as well as her constant,"I love my car." comments she added in every day. It felt good to be appreciated.

The music changes on the boom box to the Talking Heads, Tina bops her head back and forth to Burning Down the House, she seems be thinking of something distant but pleasing then she suddenly speaks up,"This is funny. The other day, one of my coworkers teased me about my car turning into a man." She chuckled lowly as she raised her hands as if to present something, "and here it has." She slaps herself in the head lightly before turning to Volt, a humorous glimmer in her eyes, "I won't elaborate any further. So now what? I mean, do you stay here or do you have to go somewhere else?"

"No, I can stay here."

"Do you want me to do anything to the garage? You wouldn't fit in the front door and the guest bed is sort of small." She smiles again.

"I'm perfectly happy in here. Just keep the internet going."

"No problem. I can't live with out it." She nods. "So, okay, I have another question. On the reports, I saw mentions of others. Can you tell me about them?"

"Yes," Volt retells the story of the Autobots and Decepticons to Tina. She practically has stopped breathing out of shock. He stops to ensure she is okay, "Tina, are you alright?"

"Yes, it's just that... I've always believed in aliens. I mean, look at space. It's so huge! Why would we be the only ones? Why all the mystery up there? Countless distances of undiscovered wonders, infinite surprises, beauty and we would be the only ones? It'd be a big waste of space if you ask me." Tina plucks blades of grass and braids the long ones as she speaks. "And right here, right on this dusty, muddy, bacterial infected rock in space, we now have two species of life forms on it. One that was born here, or so they tell us. Ever seen Egyptian or the Aztec pyramids? No way humans did that. And another being whom comes from technology so far advanced that even with reverse engineering, we are centuries if not a millennia behind." She lays back, looking up at the sky, a sly smile on her lips. "It's pretty awesome if you think about it. From a human point of view, I feel so small and insignificant now. I know that there's more out there." Tina's face is beaming as she stares upward.

"Don't. Your race is capable of great things. Even having been around humans for over a year, you are still a mystery to us. How can a creature, so small and so delicate, survive what you can? Your minds, while primitive in comparison to the multitude of circuits and processors which we have, are vast storage spaces of knowledge. Your emotions are so complex. Ours are rather simple and single minded. I like that phrase, I've heard you use it alot. Simple and single minded..." He smiles down at his former "owner" and now friend.

"This is amazing. Do you have any idea how odd this is? I mean, here I am, sitting in my front yard talking to my car, as usual, but it's now a 15 foot tall alien robot. Wow. I should be scared half out of my gourd but I'm not. Not in the slightest." She sits up, eyes round like saucers and a face splitting grin plastered from ear to ear.

"Because, in a way, you do know me."

"Yep." She chuckles lightly as she braids more blades. Then her face turns red again, "Oh, man. Volt, I'm sorry about my co-worker Rod and his penchant for Mexican food at some of our Saturday night meets." Tina is part of a car club. She has one co-worker who enjoys cars as much as she does, well, that was until he had his license suspended for illegal street racing. Now he travels with her to meets. He likes Mexican food at the restaurant they meet at on Saturday nights, unfortunately, the mexican food doesn't like Rod's stomach or a closed up car. Tina crinkles up her nose at the thought.

Volt laughs and looks down,"Yes, that is not very pleasant."

Tina strains her face and bites back her laughter, "Okay, he's officially banned from it from here on out. I promise. If he doesn't obey, you can swat him." She crosses her heart with her right hand and raises her left in a scouts pledge and flashes him pleading eyes.

The blue mech laughs at her pledge and nods in acceptance, "No need for swatting but thank you."

"No problem. I don't want you to die on me from noxious fume inhalation." Tina twists the grass blade between her fingers nervously."So, am I going to meet the others? I mean, now I'm going to stare at every car around me wondering if."

"With time. Be patient, you're taking this quite well but it is still a lot to handle so fast."

"Okay. I can deal with that. Well, hell, we have a ton of catching up to do. I really feel guilty leaving you in the garage now. This sucks." She tosses a braided strand of grass away.

"Don't be. It's fine."

"Alright. I'll figure something out." She stares into the garage and jumps at him as something suddenly pops in her mind. She narrows her eyes and lowers her head a bit, pursing her lips. "Hmmm... Volt?"

"Yes?"

"Is there anything, I mean anything at all in the house I have to wonder about?"

"Why?" He looks down curiously at the human.

"Well," Tina shrugs,"just... I don't know. Sometimes I swear my iPod has legs. I never seem to find it where I think I left it unless it's plugged into something." She pauses feeling a little ridiculous. "Maybe I am nuts after all."

Volt laughs at her and gives her a careful but reassuring pat on her small back with his giant hand,"No, Tina, you're sane. The iPod doesn't have legs. You're just forgetful with it." He smiles down at her as she breathes a sigh of relief.

"Okay."

"But don't trust that toaster that your friend Matt gave you."

Tina looks up at him with an expression that is a mixture of surprise and curiosity," The toaster?"

"Yes, the toaster" He points towards the kitchen,"Don't put any bottles or cans of Mountain Dew near it."

She raises an eyebrow and turns her head slowly in the direction of the kitchen, suddenly remember how her co-worker Matt had acted when he offered it to her."I thought he seemed a little too anxious to get rid of it. He said either the toaster goes or his crazy room mate Dan goes. Something about Dan talking to the toaster and paying a heft chunk of the rent." Tina starts laughing. "Good or bad?"

"Bad but dumb. Not dangerous, just ornery."

She gives him a thumbs up,"Roger that. So, tell me about yourself."

The afternoon continues on like this. The two of them, sitting out in her front yard, secluded from the road by the trees. They talk for hours. It's still strange that one lone human female takes to discovering that her prized car is more than just a way to get around in style. That that same blue and black haired girl just discovered that there is more to the cosmos than just pretty lights. Then again, this lone female has never been like everyone else.

Just when you think you've seen it all, fate throws you a curve ball. It goes to show, you can never be too sure about anything. Even if it's right under your nose.

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Both of the songs mentioned are on my iPod. The Talking Heads and Siouxsie and the Banshees were great. I highly recommend them to anyone who likes quirky rock.


	2. Hi, I'm the new human

A/N: I'll be honest, I had originally intended for this to be a one chapter short story, but between the reviews (thanks a ton for those of you who gave some!) and having put 1,000 miles on the Meanie this week, I decided it needs to continue. I guess ultimately, this story will run parallel with another story I'm writing but haven't posted yet ,as a human POV. Not wanting to give away anything associated with Enigma: Betrayal's Becoming that I'm currently writing, all I will say is that all of these stories are inter related.

I do not own Transformers. I only wish that I did. I do own the Blue Meanie but not Volt (it's confusing I know) and I also own the black F-18 character mentioned in this story. ;-) Said character has a name in my notes, but I will post it later on. :D

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Another weekend was just a few hours away! Woo hoo! Tina was in a good mood. She had spent lunch bumper sticker attacking the Toy, her daily commuter car. Her co-worker Rod had been all too eager to help with the task. Now the car looked as if it were held together with the stickers. It's faded red paint job peaking out from behind some of the best Spencer's and Hot Topic had to offer. No, she really didn't have anything better to do in the parking lot of Aliberto's at lunchtime. She was a government employee after all.

Tina cranked up The GO! Team as she crawled through traffic on her way home. She really couldn't think of a better song to initiate another weekend like the Team's song Huddle Formation. Her normal commute had become less of a chore the past few weeks. She now looked forward to going home. How many girls could say they had a giant alien robot living in their garage. Oddly enough, that brought a smile to her face. Volt seemed to be full of endless stories. The blue streaked brunette still could barely fathom how old he was. It was weird considering that for his age, he seemed to be the same age as her. She had started to refer to him as a 23 year old in Earth years.

The red beater Corolla pulled up to the house and she announced her arrival with a quick toot of it's meager horn. Even the horn sounded like it was dying on the car. She opened up a back door to the car and pulled out a shopping bag full of bread, Code Red and regular Mountain Dew. She had grown accustomed to taunting the toaster every now and then. She actually hated Mountain Dew but the toaster seemed to love it. She wanted to get rid of the thing but a toaster that had feet would probably find it's way back to her, reminding her of the Ouija board in the '80s movie Witchboard. She unlocked the side door to the garage and walked in. Noticing the light glow of the holo monitors in side of the Civic.

"Hey, Volt. Are you watching YouTube?" She laughed upon recognizing the images in reverse.

"You humans will record anything won't you?" His voice sounded amused.

"You have noooo idea." She lays the bag down on the work bench. And speaking in a sing-song voice she says "Guess what I bought today." She places her hands on the work bench behind her and hoists herself up to sit upon it. She swings her legs back and forth, resembling a little kid.

"By the tone of your voice, I'd have to say you're probably going to tease the toaster again." He sounded entertained by her odd choice of fun.

"Yep. That little bastard is going down." She leans back and swoops her left arm downwards, her thumb pointed down.

"What's your plan?" Volt really enjoys Tina's oddities. She really is a strange girl but it's a positive considering that she could have freaked out and called the Federal Government to come and collect him as soon as she found out what he is.

Tina grabs a plastic container and heavy-duty duct tape sitting on the bench next to where she had sat."Do you think it can hear us in here?" She looks a bit concerned.

"No, but if you'd feel better sitting inside and telling me, that's cool."

Tina laughs at his usage of "that's cool." She guesses her influence has been rubbing off on him. _That's_ cool. She jumps down off of the bench and walks to the driver's side door. He opens it for her and she steps in. She still can't get used to the shift in the interior of the car since Volt 'came out' to her. The once two tiered dash now seemed to be an expanded form of it's self with more gauges than she new what to do with. Most of which she couldn't understand due to the odd symbolic writing on them. The door shuts behind her and she speaks up, still quietly though. "I want to trap the little bugger. I don't think plastic is going to work though. I'm not comfortable with a teeny tiny Decepticon living in my kitchen. I don't understand what the thing was even doing in Matt's apartment to begin with or how it got there. "

"Think about where you two work, Tina."

"Ahhh, good point." She leans back in the seat and sighs, "Spy on the inside or so to speak. So, any plans this weekend?" _Sheesh, that sounds funny_. She asks her own car if it plans on going anywhere.

"Well, actually, how would you finally like to meet everyone?"

"Really?! That'd be great." She sounds so excited. "When?"

"Well, I was thinking tonight. You can stay up there, we have facilities for humans since it was once a human base. Oh and because humans stay there from time to time. Glenn and Maggie will be here this weekend."

"Really? Cool. Glenn is probably dreading seeing me out of fear that I'm going to attack him for almost giving me a heart attack." Tina thinks about the first day that Volt showed himself to her. He told her how he volunteered to be her guardian after Glenn mentioned her, her position and how she was a little too good at her job. She called her sugar loving step-cousin up and explained what she had just found out. Her voice a little too calm and unsettling. Maggie told her later that day, that Glenn was convinced that Tina wanted to end his life. Or at least hurt him real, real bad.

Volt chuckled,"If you do, record it and put it on YouTube."

Tina snorted, "God, you're as twisted as me." she starts to laugh, "Will do. Soooo, should I play with the toaster or not?"

"Hmmm. Do you have any heavy metal boxes? Plastic won't work."

"Nope."

"Well, give him a soda for now. Then just put him in the box and tape it up really well. We'll give it to Ratchet and let him figure out what to do with it."

"That's your medic right?"

"Yes."

"Okay," she laughs," he's going to become a science experiment?"

"No. Nothing like that. Ratchet will know how to subdue the mini beast."

"Alright, then. I have to go shower and put an overnight bag together." He opens the door for her and she exits. " I'll be back shortly. "

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_So, tonight I get to meet more giant robots. Sheesh, every day is more and more like a weird Bmovie._ She chuckles at her own thoughts as the phone rings. She sprints across her bedroom to turn down the music she loves to blast while getting dressed. The phone still ringing it's shrill ring, she jumps over the chair by her bathroom to grab it on it's 5th ring.

She breathes out a breathy "Helloooo?" into the reciever.

"Tina! You're still home. Good. I rang your mobile and got nothing. I thought maybe you were still at work." Tina caught her balance on the chair next to the door as she tripped over the cord while reaching for the base.

"Oh! Hi, Maggie. Yeah, I'm still here. I just got out of the shower. What's up?" Maggie and she had been friends since they first started at NSA. Just a few months ago, after Tina had relocated, Maggie had been "relieved" of her position. The gorgeous blonde and Glenn had both been offered lucrative jobs at the Rand Corporation and relocated to the West coast. The responsibilities of their jobs still meant the two geniuses didn't get to see her much regardless of their closer proximity but Tina had remained close to both. She hoped that they would still be able to make it there this weekend.

"What time are you leaving?" the heavily accented voice on the other end of the phone asked. No matter how long Tina knew Maggie, she still found herself entranced by the native Australian's accent.

"Soon." Tina's voice had a hint of embarrassment. "We're, um, waiting on me to get my tail together."

Maggie laughed from the other end of the phone, "Then get a move on, woman! Oh, and bring a good Cabernet if you have one. Enough for us both, only. Glenn is driving me out of my wits this week." Maggie sounded tired. She had moved in with Glenn after their transfer. Glenn could be a handful. Countless hours of enduring his video game marathons could tax even the strongest person.

"Will do, Mags. I have a bottle in the pantry that has been collecting dust for ages now. Good news too... it's Australian."

"Thank GOD!" Maggie exclaimed. "See? T, you can be taught. Okay, see you there then. And HURRY!"

Tina laughed as she gave her good byes and grabbed a black '60s mod frock from her closet. She pulled on some blue tights and black flats and moved to her bathroom to finish her make up.

---------------------------------

As Tina walked into the kitchen she noticed that not only was the Mountain Dew she had left on the counter prior to leaving the kitchen gone, but the Code Red she had left on the counter was too. "Okay, Vinny" She had named the toaster Vinny for no apparent reason other than he was short and reminded her of the actor Joe Pesci. "We're going for a little trip, I hope you're ready." She walked over to the toaster and unplugged it carefully and placed it in the plastic container. The small metallic being hadn't shown itself to her and she was thankful. From what Volt had told her, Decepticons, even dumb ones were nothing to feel safe with. The silver machine had not tried to escape her grasp. Its stayed in it's altmode as she placed it in the over sized beach bag slung around over her shoulder. Tina typed in the code to the security system as she exited the mudroom and into the garage. She carefully locked the door behind her.

"Okay, I'm finally ready." She spoke as she slipped into the driver's seat and placed the beach bag on the passenger seat floor.

"Tina, exactly what do humans do that takes so long to 'get ready' as you call it?" Uh- oh, another Human/robot interface question. Tina laughed at the innocence in Volt's voice.

"Well, we shower. Bathe. Wash. Clean?" She suddenly sounded unsure of herself." Then we put on clothes, do our hair, make up, etc. Well, females anyway."

"You do this to be attractive to the opposite sex?" He genuinely asked her.

Oh boy, someone had been on Wikipedia too much. "Well, not just for the opposite sex, Volt. For anyone really. It's a strange ritual I know but it's how we feel most comfortable. I feel like me when I do my daily ritual."

"I notice you wear a lot of blue. Is that your color?"

Definitely too much Wikipedia, she surmises. "Yes, Volt. Just like the color car I ordered. I love blue." She chuckles lightly as he makes a pleasing sigh.

"Very well. Sit back. Relax and let me handle the hard part."

Tina can't get over how much she notices on the drive north. So much she never saw back when she had her eyes on the road. Now that she was a passenger, she could fully enjoy the scenery of California. As the sun sets, she finds herself growing tired. The tint of the windows added with the darker sky allowed her to close her eyes and nap a little on their trip while not looking suspicious to other motorists. When she opened them, they were pulling up to what appeared to be a converted hangar complex.

"Hey," She says groggily, "are we here?"

"Yes."

Tina grabs her bag complete with tuckered out toaster and climbs out as Volt transforms beside her.

"So," The blue mech says with a hint of amusement in his voice again," Are you ready to be the shortest person in the room again?"

She laughs, "I guess I have no choice."

No sooner does she start to step forward, she is tackled by Maggie and Glenn. What a relief it is to see the two. Glenn looks relieved to not be facing her in a bad mood. The three hug, smile and quickly catch up while walking inside.

----------------------------------

She'd been wandering around the base with Maggie as Glenn had retired to the rec-room to battle Jazz in a game of Halo 3. It was almost too much to take in. The government had allocated space to the Autobots after they had basically saved humanity, for now anyway, from the threat of the power hungry Decepticons. She was almost at a loss for words for what she had been shown. She never imagined in a million years that such technology could exist. She and Maggie where waiting outside, sitting on a concrete force protection barrier when Tina's most recent dream car pulled up.

Tina sat in awe as a yellow Camaro came to a stop directly in front of them. The blue haired girl turned to the blonde in surprise only to have that surprise met with a sly smile. A teen age boy and girl exited the vehicle and Tina slid off of the barrier. She watched in amazement as the gorgeous yellow car shifted, just as her own car had countless times before now, and turned into a tall, yellow robot. Both teens chuckled as they met her gaze, the boy turning to her, "It never gets old, huh?"

Tina continues to stare up in amazement, "No." She shakes her head." It doesn't."

"Sam Witwicky." the boy holds out his hand to her. He is so young but something in his eyes denotes an age beyond his years. She suspects it's the events of the past year that are the reason for it.

"Tina Littorio, pleasure to meet you." She smiles at the boy. The pretty girl beside him puts her hand forwards as well.

"Mikela Banes." The brunette gives a welcoming smile.

"Pleasure to meet you as well, Mikela. I've heard tons about you both." Tina gives Mikela a hearty hand shake.

"So," Sam adds in,"I see you're getting acquainted with things here."

"Yep." Tina shifts her focus back to the tall yellow bot in front of her. The robot is staring down at her with what she can only assume is amusement.

"Yoooou must be Bumble bee." she smiles up at the giant bot.

"... One and only.." Plays from the robots speakers. Tina chuckles at his usage of sound bytes for communication. She turns to Sam, "I thought he could talk."

Sam looks back at his guardian, "Oh, he can. Old habits die hard. You know?"

Tina chuckles and shakes her head. "Everyday, man. Every day."

Maggie walks over to the four, "Okay, well if I remember correctly, Lorrentina, there is a bottle of cabernet with our names on it. We're going to need it. Hell, I'm going to need it. Anytime you get Sunny and Sides in the same room you'll need a good bottle of something or you'll want to deactivate them both."

All four walk towards the doorway inside, Maggie leading the way.

-------------------------------

The rec-room is full of laughter both large and small. Maggie had dragged Tina to every last office, space, and personal quarter imaginable introducing her to anyone she could. Tina would have never imagined that robots could have so many different personality types. They were no different than some people she knew. Tina had yet to meet Optimus Prime, whom everyone robot and human alike seemed to look up to and have the utmost respect for. She really looked forward to meeting him. She suspected that he was busy doing that which makes good leaders what they are, he was being dedicated to their cause and survival. She barely saw her introduction as a reason to interrupt him. Instead she and Maggie busied themselves watching some of the Autobots antics.

Somewhere down the line, Bumblebee, Volt and Bluestreak decided they needed to race. Tina found the fact that even robots with these specific alt modes felt a need to prove themselves to each other entertaining if not ironic, considering they were all robots. She would never look at humans the same again. Apparently, the Import vs. Domestic problem exceeded the planetary boundary.The small group of humans walked out to the flight line to watch the 3 cars compete for supremacy. Sunstreaker and Sideswipe waiting for a chance to take on Bumble Bee. The twins felt that racing Bluestreak and Volt's "Import" altmodes was beneath them. Tina found this typical even amongst humans. She shook her head at the two twins.

While waiting, an F-16 and F-18 landed. But not a normal F-16 or F-18 as Tina had become used too working with the government. These particular planes were painted with odd paint jobs. The F-16 was a light blue with red markings on it. The F-18 was a shiny black color that appeared to have an almost purple hue to it. How odd, she thought to herself. Must be some of the "enemy" planes with Top Gun. She walked over to the planes as they taxied to a stop and seemed to almost wait for her. She turned to Maggie who was intently watching the three Auotbots bicker prior to racing. Tina opened her mouth to say something but abruptly closed it. She continued to walked over to the air craft, curious about them. She had always been as fascinated with aircraft as she was with cars. She approached them carefully but stopped short of them as the craft began to shift.

Time seemed to slow down as she watched the F-16 shifted as easily as she had seen Volt do many times now. The familiar shape of a humanoid being appeared and she found herself staring up into not a set of blue optics like Volt and the other Autobots had but a pair of red optics set into a visage of annoyance that made her step back a step or two. This mech had no markings on him designating an affiliation with any faction but she had learned enough from Volt to know what the red optics meant. None the less, this mech did not look happy. She slowly backed away from him towards the crowd behind her.

"Maggie, Maggie, Mag. Mags?" She called out as she walked backwards as the being walked towards her, a sly grin on his face. The black F-18 behind him transformed as well into a tall being with no face, only a black shiny shield where a face should have been. She finally lost composure and said "screw this!" as she turned around and bolted towards the crowd of humans behind her.

New to the game of not, Tina Littorio knows a Decepticon when she sees one and this is no toaster!


	3. Fear, joy and sadness

A/N: Tina's life is becoming like a big amusement park ride. Every turn brings a new joy and she's really loving every second of it. But tonight she's going to show a more serious side. But first the comedic bits.

Although, I love the movie, I still feel that there wasn't enough robot time but now I understand why it was written the way it was. Sometimes you need to just get the human parts out of the way to get to the nitty gritty Cybertronian war bits. Hopefully, the sequel will delve further into the Autobots and Decepticons. That is why I've written this story, it will carry the human element.

---------------------

Tina hastily runs back to the crowd which is still watching the impromptu drag race and almost tackles Maggie to the ground.

"Dear God," Maggie tries to balance herself staring at a severely rattled Tina, "What has gotten into you?"

Tina looks as if she's seen a ghost as she points behind Maggie towards the Decepticons that are walking towards them all and to whom no one seems to pay any notice. "T-t-theres Decepticons. Big ones." Tina whimpers into the grip of her friend, her face a mask of fear. Maggie follows her friends gaze expecting to see Starscream or worse behind them all. The blonde Aussie laughs when she sees who the two "Decepticons" are.

Tina looks at her laughing friend in disbelief, "What is so funny?" Her face still looks scared, she's flustered and Maggie is _laughing_ at her. _What the hell?_

"Those two aren't Decepticons. Well, not _anymore_ anyway." The gorgeous analyst taps Sam on the shoulder, "Sam, I think we need to introduce Tina to..." she tilts her head towards the two tall Seekers approaching from behind them.

Sam glances past Maggie and Tina at the two and then back to Tina, seeing the look of worry on the brunette's face, he also chuckles, "This ought to be fun. She looks scared out of her wits." Both of them look at Tina whose face is twisted in confusion beyond all belief and keeps glancing from Maggie to Sam to the Seekers. Sam nods knowingly at Maggie, "Yeah. Lets."

All three humans walk over to the blue and black robots, Tina stares up in awe at their size and design. They seem so much bigger than Volt. Then again, Volt's alt- mode is so much smaller than theirs. Then _again,_ Volt doesn't have wings protruding from his back in a manner that mimics that either of biblical angels or demons, depending on how you view them. Right now, the goofy systems security specialist, who had previously thought she'd seen it all is now doubting the validity of that belief. She looks up at the black robot towering over her. It has no face that she can see, only a smooth black shield that reminds her of an oval shaped onyx stone. As she stares up into the void of the being's face, the shield appears to break into four parts and slide away into it's helmet exposing a surprisingly feminine face. The lithe being smiles down at her with piercing dark blue optics that are almost purple as she kneels down and speaks in a slightly deep and calm but feminine voice, "You must be Tina." The femme nods slightly at her in a manner that reminds Tina of how Asians traditionally do so upon greeting someone. "I am Enigma."

Tina still looks unsure about the two as Sam nods approvingly at her. Okay, if he approves of the two she'll play along. "Uh. Hi?" Tina wonders if she should hold out her hand but decides to only return Enigma's respectful nod.

Enigma stands up and places her hand on the shoulder of the blue-grey mech next to her. This being doesn't seem to have the same pleasant disposition as Enigma as he scowls down at Tina, making her feel very uncomfortable, incredibly small and borderline unsafe at the moment. "This silent and brooding fellow is Thundercracker. Don't be fooled by his current disposition. He's actually quite a noisy handful." Thundercracker narrows his optics at Enigma as she smirks at him playfully and pats him on the shoulder. The tall femme adds in a teasing voice and blinking her optics, "He's being shy."

A low growl emanates from the mech beside Enigma. "I am not. I'm just disappointed that we didn't scare her more. You're killing my fun." The blue mech crosses his arms over his chest. He looks irritated but not so much as he is interested in what the Autobots are doing on the flight line. He stops scowling as he watches the race, appearing to look for someone or something amongst the crowd. Obviously seeing what it is he was searching for, he shakes his head and resumes his scowl.

Enigma stands up and shakes her head as she slaps her wing mate on the arm, "He's got a logic circuit or two loose. Ignore him." Thundercracker shoots the black femme an evil glare as she grins and him and laughs innocently as some silent exchange between the two happens, which Tina interrupts out of curiosity.

"So you're not Decepticons?"

Enigma shifts uneasily at the question and considers her response for a second. Thundercracker remains impassive and brooding as Enigma answers for them both, "We... were. I was a long, long time ago. It's a really lengthy story that I'm sure Volt can fill you in on later. A-n-y-way," Enigma adds quickly as she places a graceful hand over her chest, "_I_ joined the Autobots." The black femme motions towards her partner with her thumb, shaking her head and giving him a teasing grin, "grouchy over here is um..." She clears her vocal circuits, holding a fist to her mouth a gesture that is an obvious habit learned from their human interaction," an independent. Sort of like Switzerland."

"I'm not grouchy. I'm contemplative." The blue mech does indeed look grouchy. There's no doubt about it.

Enigma gives him an imploring look. "_What_ever. You are too grouchy, TC. You're definitely not known for your approachable demeanor."

Thundercracker only shrugs and adds in a terse, "humph." as a response.

The playful femme harasses him a bit more,"Are you saying you're quasi friendly?"

Thundercracker gives_ her_ a small smirk this time.

Enigma rolls her optics at the blue Seeker next to her. "Liar. You have warning signals all around you, T.C. Sure, if the individual approaching is fortunate enough to be heavily armed _they'll_ be safe. One needs to be able to protect themselves..." An entertained looking Enigma turns back to Tina and points with her thumb to Thundercracker, "The etchings on his face plates say 'approach with caution.'" Thundercracker shoots the femme another icy stare that only makes her break out into more laughter. Enigma smiles mischievously at the small human before her, her dark blue optics flaring lighter for a moment, "I really love harassing him."

Tina giggles at the constant banter between the two Seekers when Maggie elbows her, "Hey, the kids are done playing. It's Sunny and Sideswipe's turn." Maggie kicks a rock at her feet and scrunches up her face as she watches the twins transform and drive out to the end of the flight line. "Ten dollars says this ends either with an argument or another one of their famous fights over who is a better driver or who is faster. Either way it's a load of bollocks. They're the same damned alt-mode." The group of 3 humans and 2 robots watch as Bumblebee, Volt and Bluestreak transform and reenter the crowd. Bumblebee raises his hands in the air in victory. Sam walks over to his giant friend and gives him a "low five."

Bluestreak is smiling as usual as he says, "I let him win that last one. I would have let Volt win, but then I'd have to say in 3rd gear all the way down the strip to go slow enough for him." Volt gives him a wounded look before laughing at the partial truth behind the comment. Bluestreak pats the slightly shorter blue mech on the back. Volt, lost all three races. _Poor guy_, thinks Tina. He maybe able to surpass the capabilities of his alt-mode's rating, but he still can't beat the two faster mechs.

Tina smiles and gives Volt a pat on the leg as he comes over to their oddly heightened circle, "It's okay, Volt._ I _still love you" to which the blue mech beams down at her. "Racing against Bumblebee and Bluestreak was bound to have this outcome. V-8, V-10... I-4. Ow. But it_ was_ total gearhead eye candy, though. " Volt laughs at her comment as he and Bluestreak both nod a quick hello to Enigma and Thundercracker. For a split second, it almost looks as if the angry looking Seeker is indeed friendly as he slightly nods back.

Volt doesn't look disappointed at loosing all three rounds while he jokingly says, "Maybe Ratchet and I do need to talk about that turbo modification." Tina gives him a thumbs up and a huge grin as the mech hollers behind him at Jazz, asking if the Lieutenant would like to race. Knowing what she does of both of their alt-modes, this would be the most formidable match. Specially if the two could round up one of the drones. The drones have the alt mode of a Cobalt SS/SC, a vehicle that was in the same classification as the Solstice and the Si.

Jazz walks over from where he had stood, grinning audio receptor to audio receptor and gives Volt a thumbs up. "On one condition, buddy."

"Sure, Jazz."

Jazz kneels down next to Tina and winks at her, "Tina, you want in on this?" Volts stands next to him giving Tina a thumbs up this time.

Tina nods her head at the offer."Sure. Driver or passenger?"

"I already have a driver. He hasn't ridden with a fine young lady in a while." Jazz raises both optic ridges playfully at the girl as she giggles.

"Jazz, quit hitting on her!" Volt laughs, feigning insult.

Jazz smiles at him as a handsome man in a dark gray suit appears at his feet. Tina stands back startled by the sudden appearance of the man. He walks over to her, gives her a handsome smile and holds out a hand for her to shake. "It would be my pleasure, miss." The voice is Jazz but the man looks a bit like Will Smith as he did in Men in Black. Tina chuckles at the irony of a giant alien choosing something like Will Smith as Agent J to be the representation of himself in human form.

"Jazz?" Now she is stunned.

"In the... well, I guess flesh doesn't really fit in here." "Jazz" scratches his goatee. Tina shakes his hand amazed at how solid it is.

"How..?"

"Holo matter avatar. You're best asking Ratchet, Wheeljack and Hound about how it works. I just know it does. They're Hound's specialty. These avatars make it a lot easier for us rather than driving around without drivers. It also helps with interaction."

"Wow.Thats amazing. Suddenly my master's degree seems useless." She looks up at Volt, "do you have one too?"

"Nope, Tina. I have you. But now that you know, I'll probably be getting one."

Tina laughs at a thought that pops into her head, "So, what you're saying is, I'm gonna have a roommate soon? Weird." She turns back to Jazz/Agent J look alike, "Shall we?"

Jazz the Autobot transforms into his alt mode as his avatar opens up the door for her.

He walks around, opens up his own door and slides in. It seems so strange that an avatar can do so much. Tina knows that he's showing off a little and she likes it. Jazz is the go-lucky happy guy. His interest into human culture is well known and respected amongst his fellow Autobots. She wishes she knew more people like him.

"Soooo, I know what this car can do stock. I know what it can do with the modifications you have, Jazz. But now I have to ask, what can _you_ do that surpasses that? I mean, how much of a surprise am I going to get over a normal modified Solstice?"

Jazz/Agent J winks at her and flashes her one heck of a nice grin and only says, "You may want to let Volt get that turbo mod after this."

Tina leans back in her seat and nods. The grin on her face not faltering for a second as they take off in a fury down the flight line. The blue lights lining the asphalt nothing but a blur passing by. A resounding but girlish "woot" trailing behind them down the line.

------------------------------------------

By the end of all of the races, Tina was on a second wind from all of the speed. Jazz is fast, it's that simple. Volt gave him a good run for his money but the modified Solstice still had a once second lead on the SI. By the time they were done, Volt was adamant about getting Ratchet to modify him. He swore up and down that first thing the next solar cycle he was going to talk to the Medical Officer about it.

Everyone had gone inside to the recreation room, the twins arguing as usual. Tina and Volt stayed outside talking. Tina sat on a sweatshirt that she had brought along as they both sat down on the chilly cement tarmac. They both were leaned up against the wall of the building, under a dark area left from a burnt out overhead light. Tina had switched into a pair of jeans and a long sleeve teeshirt she had in her bag. It had gotten unseasonably cool out that night. She brought her knees up and rested her chin on them. She stared up into the night sky, looking at what stars could be seen though the pollution that hung over Southern California.

"All those little points of light. Anyone of them could have life like mine or yours orbiting. It's amazing to know it's true, Volt. Absolutely amazing." She looks like a little kid, her hair held back in a fat, plaid headband, the look of wonder on her face. Her life since "meeting" him has just been one amazing discovery after another for which she is very thankful. She leans over to her right, resting her small head on his huge arm and sighs happily. "Thank you."

"For?"

"Scaring the hell out of me that one Saturday afternoon. Life hasn't been the same since."

"Better I hope." He sounds unsure.

"Oh, definitely." She smiles up at him.

"Tina, you never seemed to be unhappy before." He's known her for a year and a half. The privilege, if you can call it that, of having been undercover all that time meant he got to learn so much about her. He's heard her conversations on the phone, her occasional but rare night out or drive with friends, her singing along with music, and her bad habit of talking aloud to herself when she's extremely upset about something. He even knows which one of her coworkers are "bitches", "assholes", "dickheads" or any of the other human slang words to describe not liking someone. This is a fact that she was initially nervous about but has grown to accept and like. She told him the week prior that she feels that she can be "real" around him. He had to ask Jazz what being "real" meant as she is a living breathing being who can be herself, not an avatar or an actress pretending to be someone else so that people like her.

"Oh, Volt. I was but this is different. I can't explain it. I'm just happy." She be-bops her head back and forth to emphasize her comment.

"One thing I noticed, though, Tina. You never have anyone over and rarely go out. Why?" It's true. Even before she discovered that her car could talk and transform into a giant alien robot, she didn't go out much. She would go to car meets on the weekend with one co-worker and occasionally go out for drinks with a few friends from work. But for the most part, she kept to herself.

Tina leans back again and lowers her legs, sitting Indian style. She looks down at the ground as she plays with the cuff on her jeans. "My Aunt Nicola, the child psychologist, says I have trust issues." She pulls a stray thread off of the seam of the cuff and dangles it in the air, letting the soft breeze carry it away. "I've always been like this."

He doesn't understand why. She's so personable, fun loving and always up for something new. "Why? Why are you like that? Did something happen to you to make you that way? Bluestreak used to hole himself up in his room when he first joined us, or so I'm told. Then when he came around, his mouth didn't stop." Bluestreak can talk the busiest of talkers under the table. Name it and he'll ramble on about it. Everyone knows it's his nerves. They've been bad since he survived the attack on his home city but sometimes, the motormouth mech only stops when told to do so or when he realizes how bad he is rambling.

"Sort of. I guess it happened when I was a kid. My life has had it's share of tragedies, Volt. I'm surprised you haven't heard me talk about it."

"I've heard bits and pieces. Mostly you talking to family. I don't know anything about you as a sparkling, though."

"Ha ha. Sparkling? Thats what you call children right?"

"Yes. And younglings are our word for the age that you humans refer to as teenagers."

"Nice."

"So tell me." He wants to know more about her. He couldn't have asked to have been given a better human to watch over. Tina is open minded and pleasant. Plus, her love of cars meant that he gets treated quite well.

"Well, it's kind of depressing but okay." She pulls her legs in closer. She inhales deeply, recalling a deeply buried memory. "My mom died giving birth to my brother. My younger brother Andre. I was only two so I don't remember her but I've seen her pictures and she was beautiful. Tall, dark hair, porcelain skin, green eyes, she was a typical northern Irish woman. I guess I kind of look like her but with my dads tan and nose. Anyway, my dad got remarried 2 years later, when I was four, to a wonderful woman named Linda who was my Uncle Salvo's accountant. Linda is Glen's mother's younger sister. That's how he an I are related.

" Dad and Linda were killed by a drunk driver when I was 10. It was horrible. They didn't die right away. They were taken to a Hospital in Baltimore, excuse me, they were medivacced. That's when you're in such a bad shape that an ambulance won't do. You get helicoptered out. Well, dad died enroute. Linda made it through surgery. She was suffering from complications due to her bad heart. We didn't know about her heart. She didn't know either. Crappy family doctor failed to notice it before." Tina looks down as tears well up in her green eyes. "I loved her, Volt. She was the mother I never knew. She never had any children of her own but you couldn't tell. She took to us children as if she had birthed us herself. She was beautiful and so strong in spirit." Tina chokes and wipes a tear from her eye, "anyway, I begged a nurse to let me see her. She was awake in her bed and watching me beg the nurse at the desk outside of her room. She smiled when I walked into the room and called me her little princess. I'll never forget, I was wearing a pink dress and a Pac man teeshirt, I was weird then. I climbed up on her bed and was playing with her hair. She hugged me and told me that I was her daughter no matter what anyone said. She kissed me on my head. It was the last thing she said. All I remember was the sound of the machines. A long drawn out tone. Flatline, she died. In less 5 hours that night, I went from having two loving parents, to one, to none. I was alone with my brothers. I was a little kid. We _hated_ each other back then."

Tina uses the sleeve of her sweatshirt to wipe her eyes. She chuckles as she checks it for any eyeliner. "Thank you Maybelline for waterproof mascara." She tucks the sleeve back up and takes a sip of her bottled water that had been on the ground beside her.

Volt didn't know how she was raised. He knew that she was raised by her Uncle Salvo, but he wasn't aware of her relationship with her father and stepmother. He wants to know more, "Tina, please continue."

She gives him a lopsided smile, "Okay. Anyway. Things weren't always easy before my dad and Linda passed away. They were an interracial couple."

He interrupts her, "Interracial?"

"Yes, my dad was white my stepmom was black. Darker skin. You know, like Glen."

"Oh, yes. I see. I'm sorry."

"No problem. Anyway, such things aren't alway accepted. Out in the public it is, but in school I had hell to pay. Kids are mean little bastards. Plus, I was always taller than everyone else. By the age of 12, in the 6th grade, I was a 5'6" freak with boobs." She juts her chest out laughing at how goofy she looks." I was a freak, bone skinny with a rack _and_ I had a black mother in an predominately white neighborhood. I didn't care. She loved me more then they ever would. Then she was taken away from me. My dad, he was a saint. Always happy. Always hugging us kids. I would follow him into the garage, with his huge gloves on my hands. I would ask, 'what's that,daddy?', 'daddy, show me how this works?', 'daddy, can I do it?'" She sighs as the tears well up in her eyes again," both of them were wonderful. I couldn't have asked for a better family. When they passed on, we went to stay with my Uncle Salvo and Aunt Donna, they treated us so well. They picked up where Linda left off. Supporting us kids through thick and thin, always expecting the best. They recognized our talents and taught us to perfect them. They even took us to our grandmamma's house every weekend. Thats where Glen and I would get into trouble playing video games. That's how we learned how to hack websites." She covers her mouth with her hand as she laughs at their behavior. "Man, my grandmamma and Aunt Gracie hated that."

"It sounds as if you were very busy as a kid. But you spent most of your time with family?"

"Yes. I didn't want to deal with the narrow minded kids at school. Don't get me wrong, I did have friends." Tina stares upwards towards the stars as a small smile curls on her lips, "Constance, Janet, Lisa, Chrissy, Julie. All we would do is talk about boys. I had a few guy friends, we would spend all day working on cars and sneaking beers in their parents' garages. But there was already too many of us Littorio kids in one house. My brothers, my two cousins Phil and Dom and my aunt and uncle. I went to their houses, they didn't come to mine.

"I went off to college and we all lost touch. I've tried looking them up on line but either they can't be bothered, they've started families of have just all out disappeared. In college I got into the goth thing. A little late I know but I like it. It was fitting for how I felt. I admit it, I experimented with drugs and alcohol back then. But then I got it out of my system. That's how I ended up how I am today. What you see is the result of a realization inside of one of my trips. This is what happens when you see the back of your own skull.

"There is one friend that I keep in touch with from college. That'd be Maggie. Maggie, Glen and I all went to college together. Nerds of a feather stick together. She and I even got tattoo's together," Tina tilts her head to the left exposing her neck. There is a small tattoo of some script that looks oddly similar to Cybertronian just behind and below her left ear. "Mine means happiness. So that's my story, Volt, what about yours?"

"What would you like to know?"

"Well for starters, exactly how old are you?"

Volt is hesitant about answering. Humans will have a hard time understanding how old he is. Every single last one of them is older than Earth history has a record of any life form with the capability of speech. His shoulders drop as he thinks of how best to answer her question. He decides to answer it exactly." I'm over ten million earth years old."

"What?!"

"Over ten million earth years." He knew she would be shocked.

"Volt, the Corolla is over fourteen years old and it's a rust bucket. How the hell?"

"Advanced technology, Tina."

"I know but, but, wow." She looks to be in shock at his answer. Her eyes are round as she stares up at him. "Did you have parents? like me?"

"Yes, at one time. I was raised in an Institution for learning, similar to your boarding schools. The war had been going on for the equivalency of ten of your Earth years. My mother was there with me. She was a caretaker. My father had left to fight the in the war. I never saw him after he left. He fought and died fighting for our freedom. It was only natural that I would follow in his foot steps when my time came to leave the school, my mother understood. I came to the Autobots very young and very ready to fight."

"So you have parents just like us humans then?"

"Yes and no. Most of us do. Then some of us, like Enigma, have creators. They are created for a purpose be it work or companionship. She was created as a full sized, fully functional femme. I was raised from sparkling to youngling to adult." He smiles down at her," if you have any questions about the creation process, wait until Enigma has some high grade in her and her temper is numbed then ask. She's pretty sensitive about that subject. Now in my case, I was the result of sparking. Sparking is similar to how you humans procreate only less messy."

Tina laughs at his comparison, "Okay, maybe you need to lay off the internet at night. Maybe we should play video games instead..."

Volt smiles slightly as he continues, "All I know is war, Tina. This is it. My entire adult life I have been fighting this long drawn out war that has crossed the galaxy and placed us on this planet. That's over ten million years. This, this silence and calm we have right now is rare and unsettling. The Decepticons are planning something. They have to be. This is unlike them, this silence.

"Megatron was sort of predictable. He was all about brute force and destruction. The new leader, Starscream, he's a thinker. He had been Megatron's second in command as far back as any of us can remember. He was always itching for a chance to rule their faction. He's unstable, emotional, irrational, power hungry, incredibly violent and blood thirsty for both humans and Autobots. He is extremely dangerous. I can't express that enough. If you have a fear of camouflage painted F-22 Raptors, you're already on the right path. If Thundecracker and Enigma are up there, you're safe. They hate him, specially Enigma plus, she's Ironhide's protege. That femme is heavily armed. Where ever he is, destruction is soon to follow. Oh, and while I'm at it, if you're ever out in the Corolla and you see a black and white newer Saleen with the number 643 on it. Run. Don't pull over even if he pulls his lights and siren on you. Run."

He looks down at Tina who appears to turn a greenish color. "What is it? What's the matter?"

Tina looks up at him with wide eyes full of fear, "Is it a black and white Saleen with a low profile LED light bar and the mother of all push bars on the front of it?"

Her tone is making him nervous, "Yes. Why?"

She swallows and looks down at her hands." I saw it by my work last week, before the Toy croaked on me. There's a motto on it. It was strange. Something like "to protect or punish' or something like that. I remember thinking how gorgeous it was. I thought it was a propaganda car for the local police or something. I walked over to it and admired it. I didn't touch it, though. I didn't want to end up in jail for molesting a police vehicle. I didn't think anything more of it. It was there all day, but I never saw a single cop get in it. It left the same time as me. I didn't bother to look for it once I left the base. The Toy isn't fast enough to care about speeding and I know all the lights work. That piece of junk will pass a safety and emissions inspection." She was babbling now, but the sick feeling she had in her stomach wasn't subsiding. She was that close to a Decepticon that didn't care about Mountain Dew and now she felt scared. What if it followed her.

Volt took note of her concern, "Tina, if you ever see anything like that or Starscream or anything oddly familiar, interesting, out of place and just plain sinister looking, call me. Call one of us. You're with us now. You could be a target. Please." Tina nods at his request.

"Come on." Volt stood up and lowered his hand down to her to help her up. "We need to let someone know about what you saw." Tina nods again. The two walk inside as Volt heads towards Optimus Prime's office hoping that the leader has time to hear what Tina has to say.

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**A/N**: Okay, I drew my influence for Bluestreak from a trio of stories from my favorite author on here, KayDeeBlu. If you get a chance to read her stories, I highly recommend her. The woman is gifted! Her depiction of Bluestreak is wonderful and touching. I couldn't even do him the justice she has so I barely touched on him here. As far as other characters go, I will not answer any questions regarding Enigma and her origins. Period. Don't ask. Sorry. :( That's what my other story is for.

I love the Seekers. Most of my stories will be Seeker heavy. Coming from an avionics background, I love flyboys.


	4. Dead Toyotas

A/N: I woke up and was thinking about this part for no apparent reason. It's more of an insert chapter while I play around with a few ideas that take place immediately after it. I'm a comic book nut and I've thought about adding a little super/Xmen type element to the story. I have a few rough drafts of something typed up but I'm hesitant about adding. Any input regarding such an act is greatly appreciated whether it be a 'yay' or a 'nay.'

I'm really pleased with the response this story it getting. Thank you all for taking the time to read it and for giving your reviews. You all make this worth writing and support is what makes it so much fun.

Happy reading!

* * *

Volt had to take care of something back at the Autobot base, leaving Tina to have to commute in the dying Corolla. Supposedly, he'd said that he would be back this evening. It had been three days and the quiet house had been pretty unsettling to her. Now she was on her way home back to the silence. There wasn't even a toaster to torment anymore. She listened to no music since the stereo had decided to die on the way to work that morning. Instead she suffered in the oppressive heat whisping through the metro area in the stagnant summer heat. No air conditioning, no stereo and smelly old seats have her considering her options for a secondary car. The SI, aka Volt, is paid for so shelling out a few extra grand for a new beater shouldn't be too hard. She makes a mental note to check Craig's List and the Auto Trader when she gets home.

Traffic is stop and go today. Not much different than any other day as she and the Corolla sit, trapped in the second lane to the right. She stares at the back of the beat up old Ford F150 in front of her laughing at the smarmy bumper stickers on the tailgate and feeling rather sorry for the downtrodden looking old Golden Retriever tied down in it's bed. She's lost in thought when a shrill "whoop whoop" comes from somewhere behind her. Alarmed and remembering what Volt had told her the weekend before, she sits up and looks behind her to see where the approaching vehicle is. Along the shoulder on the right, a black and white CHP Crown Victoria passes by her car and continues on out of sight into the traffic. Tina rests back into her seat and lets out a relieved sigh, happy that the car wasn't a Saleen. No sooner does she feel at ease does the dashboard on the ancient Toyota light up.

"No. No. No. No. No." Tina begs the car as she watches the thermostat climb. She leans over to roll down the passenger window to ask the driver next to her if she can get over. In a rare act of kindness almost never scene on a Southern California highway, the driver does move aside and let her pass to the shoulder. The thermostat still climbing, Tina sees that there is an exit not too far away that is as equally backed up as the road. She throws caution to the wind, turns on her hazards and drives down the shoulder to the exit and passes everyone illegally. She makes a right hand turn a the base of the exit and pulls the car into a Shell station at the bottom of the ramp. Good thing she acted with haste as there is a large popping noise and the Toyota's engine starts knocking, the entire car jerking badly as she cruises to a stop by the garage.

The tall black and blue haired girl climbs out of the tin can of a car as yet another cop car pulls up behind her. Her shoulders drop as she stands by the steam leaking hood of her car and the cruiser pulls up to her. Luckily, this one is a Crown Vic as well, so yet again, she's relieved. She is on edge anymore, every time she sees or hears a cop car she gets a little worried. But today for some reason, she feels extra paranoid. _Maybe I need to take a few days off. Go out to Catalina and just forget about life for a while. _

A tall, handsome and muscular blonde officer gets out of the car and walks over to her, he frowns and runs his hand through his hair. "Well, I pulled into here to ask why you saw fit to pass everyone on the shoulder but now I see why?" He gives her a half hearted smile and removes his sunglasses revealing startling blue eyes and long lashes.

Tina smiles back and gives a nervous giggle."Yeah. I think it finally died on me. I've been driving it everyday in this heat and... well you see." Both look at the mess of oil and coolant pooling below the now dead Corolla's undercarriage.

The officer who's name tag says ,"Martin" nods his head and agrees ,"that most certainly does not look good" as a mechanic comes over from the garage next to the gas station.

"What's the problem officer?" The short and husky man asks politely, tipping his baseball cap at Tina and smiles appreciatively at her.

"I think this young lady's car just saw it's last day in traffic." Officer Martin answers him.

"Yeah, I've been driving it into the ground. I've had it since high school and I think it finally just decided to commit hara kiri on me. All the maintaining in the world wouldn't help this POS. Anyone looking for some spare Toyota parts?" Tina leans up against the window frame of the drivers door. Frustrated, she slaps the roof. "dammit."

"Miss?" The officer asks. " Do you have anyone you can call?"

She turns around, leaning her backside against the door. "Not really." She rubs the bridge of her nose, "Well, yes it'll just be a while until they would be able to get here. I don't even know if he could right now."

"Husband?" The officer asks politely, not trying to intrude.

"No, friend. Very close friend. He, uh, he has my other car." Tina searches for a good finish to that sentence, she looks up and drops her hand by her side as she finds one," He's getting work done. To, to the car...that is." She smiles nervously at the cop and the mechanic.

"Well, miss," The mechanic starts in as Tina interrupts him.

"Please, both of you, call me Tina."

Officer Martin and the mechanic both smile at her as the mechanic finishes, "Nice to meet you Tina, considering the circumstances. I'm Joe, if you want to leave the car here overnight, we can push it around back. I won't charge you. It looks like you had a rough enough day. If you want me to take a look at it, I will. It doesn't really seem worth it though." Joe studies the mismatched paint and various stickers covering the car and laughs at it's cartoonish appearance. "Well, you have some good parts on her still. I may be able to find someone who'll give ya a couple bucks for it if you'd like."

Tina turns and looks over the decrepit car and shakes her head, "Joe, you'd be doing me a favor and then some."

Joe pulls a business card out of his back pocket and hands it to her, "call me tomorrow morning, we'll try and work something out." The short man turns to Officer Martin and asks him if he can help push the car around behind the garage and the officer agrees. Tina hops in as all three get the car out of the way. Tina thanks the mechanic as she pulls her belongings out of the car.

"Which way were you headed, Tina." Officer Martin asks from behind her. Tina turns around and blocks the setting sun with her hand, pausing to think.

"Well, officer Martin," she begins.

"Timothy. Tim. Please," He gives her a smile that could melt ice it's so warm.

_Damn, he's hot,_ she thinks to herself. A small smile growing on her lips at the thought. "Well, Tim, I live further out west but there is somewhere closer than that where I can meet my friend. I can call him and he can pick me up."

"You're sure? I can give you a ride out to your house or where ever you need go."

"Yes. I am. Thank you. Um, if you could drive me to this address," She shows him a piece of paper with an address on it and he nods recognizing the location.

"That's the old air base. He looks down at the ID card around her neck, "Oh, okay. You're the government."

Tina laughs at his reaction. "Yes, aside from blue hair and suit with an 'Elvira Mistress of the Night' teeshirt on under my jacket, I do work for the government."

He smiles again as they walk towards his cruiser, "So, I take it you're a computer type then?"

"Bingo. You're good." She likes him. Not only is he handsome but there is just something old fashioned about him. As he opens the passenger door for her she realizes it's chivalry. He's very chivalrous, a trait that she had thought was all but lost in most men these days.

Tim climbs into his seat and starts the car up, "Excuse me one minute Tina, I have to call this in." Tina nods as Tim makes talks over the radio to his dispatch. She looks out the window and watches the cars go by when she spots a familiar looking shape parked along the curb across the street. Her stomach lurches as she recognizes the Saleen cop car she had seen at work. The same one Volt had warned her about. Disbelieving what she's seeing she blinks rapidly and checks again, seeing the unmistakable white lettering of "643" against the black paint on a rocker panel just ahead of the rear wheel. Looking back at her old Toyota she wonders if there is any relation or just an odd coincidence.

As she and Tim pull out of the parking lot of the gas station, Tim raises a hand to wave at the other patrolman in car 643, Tina stares suspiciously at the other car while the mustached patrolman inside returns the wave and gives her a long cold stare that chills her blood. The rest of the drive to the old air base, she constantly checks the mirrors. Even if she is with a cop, she doesn't feel safe. Not anymore.


	5. Is anyone listening?

**A/N:** This was originally part of the last chapter (4) but it's gone through about a gazillion rewrites. I'm adding a slight plot twist in here. I said I wanted to add a "Super" element and asked for 'yays' and 'nays' and got none! So, I'm putting it in. There's also some interaction between Sunstreaker and Tina in here that I love. Volt is out of commission for a few days, getting "something" done but he will be back and you'll get to see a whole lot more of him. Just like my Si, he's going to be easy going but have a nasty ornery streak. He's a prankster, so be prepared for some Honda vs. Lamborghini action, add in a smart aleck Camaro and a spirited Pontiac and it's a free for all.

Fellow Barricade fans, stay tuned. I've been waiting for a chance to do some Barricade stuff. Being a big Decepticon fan, he's one of my favs.

I want to add a lot more robot interaction stuff. I'm thinking some good Sunny and Sides moments along with some Jazz, Bumblebee and Volt having a friendly rivalry. It's a gearhead thing. Lots of Domestic vs. Import moments.

Thanks for the reviews. Keep em coming and any suggestions are always considered!

* * *

Regardless of the events upon leaving the gas station, Tina and Tim managed to have a pleasant conversation. When he pulled up to the gate's visitors building he asked her if she'd like to go out for dinner some night. Tina was more than happy to accept his offer and the two traded cell phone numbers. It's not very often that she meets a handsome man who works in a completely different field than hers. She is relieved. The tall brunette waves back at him as he pulls out of the entrance to the base. Tina walks over the the guard shack, flinging her heavy backpack over her shoulder. She greets the guard on duty and hands him her government I.D. card. "I should be on the access list but could I still use your phone?" 

The guard tells her yes and passes a phone through the window. She dials the number Volt had given her and waits for it to ring. The ringing tone switches over and she hears the familiar voice of one of the security sergeants answer. "This is Sergeant Blakely, how may I help you sir or ma'am?"

"Hi, Sergeant Blakley, this is Tina Littorio. Yes, I'm fine, thank you. And you? Good. Good. Listen sergeant, I'm up here at the gate. I had major car issues, I was wondering if there was anyone you could let know. Inside maybe?" Tina waits as the Sergeant makes another call. The sergeant gets back on the line and tells her that someone will be up to get her shortly. She thanks him and hangs up the phone, handing it back to the guard. "Airman, I'm going to go have a seat over there, okay?" She points to a bench on the opposite side of the entry way and the guard nods.

Tina walks over, sits down and leans her head back on the bench. Her eyes had been closed for a few minutes when she hears the sound of a powerful motor pulling up and rev. She raises her heavy head and sees the shit eating grin of Bluestreak's avatar watching her from inside of the Viper. "Stop revving your motor or I'll steal you from you."

Blue laughs at her greeting as she collapses into the passenger seat. "So, I hear you're having car problems, Tina? I guess it really sucks being stuck with that Toyota of yours huh? I mean, not that thats a bad choice, it's just that Volt says that you call it a rolling time bomb just waiting to fall apart and now it has..."

She laughs, placing her hand on the avatar's arm. "Blue, it's dead. It died. I mean, ker plunk. No coming back. Do not pass go, here's $200 for your pain."

"So... not good?"

"No. Unlike you all, my piece of shit Toyota does not have the ability to heal itself through any means of regeneration. It only has the ability to die ungracefully on a busy city street."

"Well, Volt should be done soon. I think you're really going to like..." He stops abruptly as Tina raises a suspicious eyebrow at him.

"Like... what, Blue?"

"Nothing. I'm just rambling again. Don't know what I'm talking about. Just ignore me." He looks as guilty as guilty can get as she eyes him out of the corner of her eye.

"I won't tell if you do." She giggles mischievously at him.

"I'm not saying anything else." He grins as they pull up to the building and hangar combo that is acting as the Autobots current base of operations until a more suitable one is found or built.

Tina hops out, still clutching her back pack and Bluestreak transforms beside her. She doesn't move towards the door. She clutches the backpack closer and stares up a the blue mech with trouble in her eyes. "Blue, I saw that Saleen today."

Blue stops dead in his tracks and looks at her in disbelief, "Barricade? Again? Where?"

"Yes, when my car broke down." Tina begins to sound like she's in an acute panic as speaks quickly," We were leaving. He was across the street. I think he's following me. I check all the time but I think he only appears when he wants me to know he's there. It's weird. He, well, his avatar, it looked right at me." She lowers the backpack and steps through the large doorway that was modified for the buildings new inhabitants. Blue follows behind her.

"Did you mention it to anyone?"

"No. You're the first. I didn't even mention it to Tim, the officer who drove me here. He even waved at the patrolman in the car. He didn't seem to notice how strange the man looked. Icy, cold, soulless stare. Empty." She shudders as the image of Barricade's avatar flashes in her mind.

Blue looks concerned, as he very well should be. Seeing Barricade once can just be a coincidence, seeing him twice in two different locations like Tina has is fishy, one more time and she can be considered in grave danger. "Tina, go wait in the recroom. I'll get everyone. They all need to know." She nods and walks into the recroom. It's quiet and she plops down on one of the many sofas set up in the room across from a rather large TV screen. She takes off her jacket and pulls a pair of Pumas out of her backpack, switching her black flats out for comfy sneakers. She pulls a diet Coke from the bag and drinks it, waiting for everyone to come in and crosses her feet over her backpack, using it as a footrest.

---------------------------------------------

"Mother of mercy," Tina cries out in annoyance, blowing a stray black and blue strand of hair out of her face. She taps the face of the watch on her left hand and frowns. Sam watches as she pulls at the band and holds the lifeless object up before her face as if it were a dead fish. Huffing frustratedly, she swings it around in her hand before dropping her hand and the watch down to her lap.

"Whats the matter?" the plucky teen says, looking over one of his school books.

"Ah. Nothing. Just another watch died on me. This one only made it 3 months.'

"I... take it this happens pretty often to you?" He gives her a curious glance before marking something down in his notebook.

"Yeah. Watches die on me. I believe I'm the only person on Earth capable of killing a Swatch and making it run backwards within 6 months of getting it. I should stick to Timex. They're the only ones that work." She shoves the black banded, offending time piece into a pocket on her back pack and sits back in the sofa, scratching her head.

"That's pretty impressive _and _weird," he says as he writes down something in his notebook. He places his pen in his mouth and looks up from his homework, "I've had the same Casio watch for 5 years and it's still ticking."

Mikela just shrugs as she goes over her homework and points something out in Sam's book to him, "I have a Swatch. I've had it for two years. Never had a problem."

Tina snorts and runs her hand through her hair, her other hand fiddling with her iPhone, "yeah, well, I'm a special case..." Her voice trails off as the Autobots walk into the recrooom, everyone looking concerned except for Sunstreaker and Thundercracker, who only look annoyed as usual. Tina watches them all as they spread about the room. Some sitting down, a few standing, Enigma and Thundercracker both walk to the back of the room and lean against the wall. Volt kneels down beside the couch she is sitting on. Everyone else finds an open spot or chair to park themselves in.

The tall brunette feels short in this crowd. The only "person" relatively close to her height is Arcee. At 5'10" Tina is almost half the pink femme's height. All 9' of Arcee is seated next to her on the over sized and overstuffed couch in the recroom. Arcee is the only 'bot small enough to allow another person, human this time, to share a couch with her.

"Good Evening, Tina," Optimus Prime nods in her direction. A nod which she returns respectfully. Since her first meeting with the Autobot leader, she has been nothing but in awe of his presence. The night that she told Volt about her "run in" with Barricade, the blue mech introduced her to Optimus rather suddenly, explaining to the leader why, in a blur of words out of fear for his human companion's safety, that they were bothering him so late. Here they are again two weeks later, almost to the day, discussing the same if not similar subject. She's still rattled, having seen the black and white mech at the gas station.

"Hello, Optimus," She really likes Optimus Prime. The giant red and blue mech has a commanding presence and a manner that causes both friend and foe alike to respect him. Give or take a few on the foe side.

"Please, Tina, tell us what you saw today." His calm manner puts her at ease. For having been the leader of the Autobots for the last seven million earth years, he still could remain calm. She new military majors and lieutenant commanders who could barely give an order without popping a gasket due to stress. She wishes there were more career military like the mech before her. She understands why everyone follows him so steadfastly. She would do so if faced with the same challenges as they all have been.

"Well, my daily driver of the last 8 years died on me. It somehow limped to a garage where I met a sympathetic mechanic and cop. Upon leaving with the cop, Tim was his name, I spotted Barricade?" She looks up at Volt for approval on getting his name right, the fiji blue mech nods approvingly at her, "Barricade was across the street watching us. As we left, Tim waved at him, I guess it's a cop thing. Anyway the 'Mustache man' waved back and then directly at me. It was such a cold, calculating stare. It chilled my blood. Creepy, really creepy."

"And the significance being?" Asked the typically arrogant Sunstreaker as he leaned against the wall across from where she and Arcee sat. Sam rolled his eyes and shook his head at the yellow mechs typical tone of distaste.

"Well, Sunny," quipped Tina with the look of annoyance on her face,"I've seen him twice now. Once at my job and now today. One more time and I can officially say he has a pattern. Decepitcon stalkers aren't exactly normal for humans. Well, except Sam." Sam gives her a goofy smile and a thumbs up from his seat across from hers. Tina looks over to Optimus, "Sir, I'm almost sure he's following me."

"I think you're jumping the gun, Tina." Sideswipe comments flatly.

"But why?" Jazz pipes up from beside Prime, ignoring Sidewipe and motioning to Tina. "No offense, Teeny'" Jazz had given her a nickname the weekend before last. Teeny Tina. She loved it. No one ever called her Teeny. Ever. " But why would he be following you?"

She shrugged, her eyes cast downward, "I dunno. Maybe my job?" She shrugged her shoulders and raised her hands up in defeat.

"Tina, exactly what _do_ you do?" It was Sideswipe speaking up this time.

"I'm a network security specialist for NSA. Why?" Tina doesn't know where Sideswipe is trying to go but considering the tone of his voice, it's no where good for her. Suspicion peppers his every word.

"And that does what?" Sideswipe crosses his arms over his chest, a disbelieving expression on his face. The two twins could be so difficult sometimes. Tina now understood why Maggie told her to invest in some good aspirin or other headache cure.

Tina narrows her eyes at him suspiciously. "I secure our network from intrusions to the best of my abilities. I build patches for holes in the system and much like systems analyst do, I look for the signal of an intrusion and cut it off before it has a chance to act. It works great on humans, not so well on Cybertronians and your advanced technology. I've developed my own form of combating a network intrusion from a Decepticon." She now crosses her arms over her chest," I apologize, but I'm not at liberty to discuss it at this moment."

"You should," Sunstreaker huffs from beside his brother.

Tina sighs out of irritation and shifts her weight in the chair, pulling her legs into her backpack as she does so. She narrows her eyes at the yellow mech, a light blows out above her. She looks up at it, distracted for a moment and clears her throat, turning to Optimus Prime. "Optimus, that is the only reason why I can think they'd be watching me. Aside from following Volt. I'm of no use to them. Only my proximity to you all is the only other thing I can think of."

Sunstreaker eyes her suspiciously, she only gives him a challenging look back. He can't help but feel that there is more to the girl. Why would the Decepitcons follow just another systems analyst of sorts? Really there is no difference between her and Glenn or Maggie. No one is looking for them, or at least they haven't claimed anyone is. He and Sides haven't noticed anything and they'd be the first ones to notice if someone were. For now, he decides to keep his mouth shut, an impressive accomplishment for anyone who knows him well.

Tina feels a set of eyes on her, well more like a set of optics. She looks around at them all and sees Enigma watching her carefully from her spot off to the side, along the wall. The black femme seems to be reading Tina almost as if she was scanning her. It's odd of her to do so, since she's only seen Enigma do that to the other Autobots. The black femme looks up at the ceiling above them and then back down to Tina, giving the girl a friendly smile. Enigma leans forward, pushing her weight off of the wall, "Optimus, maybe it's better than Tina stay closer to us."

Prime seems to ponder the femme seekers statement for a moment before shaking his head. He begins to speak when he is abruptly interrupted by Tina. "Sorry," she says to him, "Enigma, I will be closer. That's the other news of the day."

Volt perks up a bit, "Huh?"

Tina looks up at him, giving him a big grin. "I got promoted. Sort of to an independent position. Seems that somehow, word got around the channels of powers that be that I had been here two weekends ago. Well, my superiors felt that because... because i know you all, that I would be better suited at my job by working closer to you. There's an old communications building on this base. Well, it's not as old as they'd like the public to think. I've been reassigned to that command as a specialist. It's federal and military run. They're hoping that I can learn how your systems work. Oh, and my favorite, learn to read your language so that I can better work against intrusions." She smiles nervously at them all. "I'm fluent and can read and write in 4 languages, so I'm kind of a natural at it." She adds a nervous giggle at the end. She's not sure how they're going to feel about her promotion or the government's assumption that they will just willingly teach her their language and their technology. But dammit, she wants to know because as she told her boss Bill earlier that day, it would just be too damned cool not too.

Everyone is silent for a moment, causing her to let out a quiet, "Oh boy." Before anyone speaks up. Jazz being the first, "Languages are my specialty too, Teeny, so I'd be more than happy to help you out. I don't think you'll be able to speak it though." Considering that cybertronian sounds like a remixed, computerized, garbled speech pattern, she doesn't doubt that for a second. "But reading and writing may not be too hard. We have a huge alphabet."

Tina grins at him, "Can't be any worse than Chinese and Japanese. Those are my favorites to read."

Jazz nods turning to Optimus Prime, "Very similar, I can teach her if you say so."

"Lets let her get settled into her new position first," Optimus pats his lieutenant on the back. "Tina, when will you start your new position?"

"Not this Monday, but the next." There is hope in her eyes.

"Okay, so, in the mean time, Volt, when will you be finished."

Volt opens his mouth but Ratchet speaks up instead, "Just a little more work and we should be finished, Optimus. I'm finishing the fine tuning. I'd say Monday at the earliest."

Tina gives them both a strange look to which she only receives two smiles from both mechs and a wink from Volt in response.

"Tina, I'll give you a ride to work on Monday if you need it." Jazz is too eager to hang with Tina. The two have gotten into the habit of quoting movie lines and playing trivia. Tina loves how the mech embraces human culture. His upbeat attitude makes it easy to understand why they worked so hard at bringing him back online following the incident in Mission City last year. She doesn't know how and he doesn't talk about how he was brought back online either. He only says that he owes his life to Prime and Ratchet.

"Cool. Thanks, Jazz." She gives him a thumbs up and turns to Volt, "You're hiding something, I'm gonna harass you until you spill it."

Volt laughs at her threat, "That would kill the surprise, Tina."

She raises a joking eyebrow at him and laughs, "You're so lucky..."

"Okay," Optimus speaks from the head of the room, "I think it's safe to say that you are safe right now. No attempt to make contact has been made so far, only possible surveillance. I think it's too early to jump to conclusions and put Tina on lock down on the base. She'll be safe and with one of us from now on. Tina, please remain vigilant. You were right, if you see him again, I'd have to agree that he's onto something. Twice could still be a coincidence."

Tina nods respectfully at his decision. She does feel safe. Now anyway. She won't be alone and soon enough she'll be not too far away. She can't help but still feel that seeing Barricade twice was not a coincidence but she keeps that to herself. Everyone begins to walk towards the door to leave. Sunny and Sideswipe both manage to give her strange looks before they exit the room. In a sudden act of immaturity, Tina scrunches up her face and sticks her tongue out at Sunny as he walks past her.

"I saw that." The yellow mech says flatly with his back turned to her.

"And?" She challenges from the couch, giggling as she knows she irritated him as much as he irritated her. _Revenge_. She smirks at his back as he gets to the door.

Sunstreaker, sounding annoyed, mumbles, "damned humans..." as he walks out the door. Sideswipe chuckling behind him as he too exits.

Arcee stands up from where she had been sitting and stretches, chuckling. "You just love to annoy him don't you?"

"It's so easy, why not?" Tina grins mischievously as she pulls her legs up and under her on the couch.

"He's hot headed."

"I know. That makes it all the more fun."

"I'll be back in a little while, Teen'. It's time for me to go out and do patrols with Blue. I'll see ya later." Arcee heads out the door in a flash.

"See ya." Tina waves as her friend disappears. Sam and Mikela are still doing their homework. Enigma and Thundercracker are discussing something over in the far side of the room. They're speaking in Cybertronian so Tina doesn't understand a single word. Thundercracker's face looks serious as always, Enigma nods in response to something he says and he walks away and out into the hall. Enigma walks over to Tina's sofa. The tall, black and purple flecked femme kneels down low and says in a quiet tone, "Tina, come walk with me."

Enigma doesn't talk much, even though the two have hit it off well. The former decepticon tends to be more of a listener than a talker. Tina stands up, barely coming up to the femme's hip even as she's kneeling. "Sure, E. Where are we going?"

"Just out back to the tarmac." Enigma leads the way, Tina following like a happy puppy. The two step outside and away from the building. The further they walk away, the darker it gets as the light can't reach. Tina looks up at Enigma who's dark blue optics seem so ghostly in the fading light. Enigma. A name so fitting for the strange femme. Being one of the rare breed of female cybertronians who were thought extinct, her strange purple flecked black paint job, haunting optics and the tendency to move silently in the shadows, Enigma truly is what her name suggests, hard to understand or explain, a mystery. She is a ghost.

The tall bot's deep voice cuts the warm night air. "Why didn't you tell them?"

Tina is caught off guard by the question,"Tell them what?"

Enigma looks down at her stepping back and kneeling down, "You're leaving something out, Tina. I believe Barricade is following you and you know why. But you didn't tell them. Why?"

Tina swallows hard, a nervousness creeps up her spine. "What are you talking about, E?"

"Tina, I scanned you." Enigma rubs her neck, a nervous tell she does when she's paranoid or thinking at breakneck speeds." Actually, I did something to you I've never done, I correct myself, been_ able _to do to any carbon life form. I read you, Tina. I saw how nervous you were. You were holding back. So I scanned you again." Tina forgot that Enigma is a telepath. A mild one, but the femme can read electrical pulses in the logic centers of other mechs and femmes. Her abilities do not work on the electrical impulses of carbon life forms unless they've been altered in some manner. She mentally chastises herself for forgetting this simple fact.

"That light that burnt out above you, I saw you look at it." Enigma looks at Tina's left hand. "and you aren't wearing a watch either. You always were a watch. Why not now?"

"It died." Tina's voice sounds small. She fiddles with a hanging string on the sleeve of her sweatshirt.

"Mm hmm." Enigma stands back up and puts one hand on her hip and the other rubs her chin, " Is what you're hiding what you meant when you said that you aren't at liberty to discuss your other means of preventing an attack?"

Tina looks up at her with fear in her eyes. She blinks rapidly then back down, not answering Enigma's question.

"Okay." Enigma kneels back down and lowers her face so that she can look at the girl who is now obviously upset. "Tina, look. I'm not mad, I'm just concerned for you. Barricade is nothing to mess with. Hell, none of them are." She rolls her optics and a frown appears on her face plates. "I'm sure when you're ready, you'll let us in on what your secret is. I just don't want to that to be too late."

Tina's face clears and the girl nods understanding but still there is some nervousness in her eyes. "What did you see, E?"

Enigma smiles and chuckles softly, "One hell of a voltage spike and something that resembled a small, directed EMP. I don't know how it happened or what it was but it managed to take out a light with it. Nice work." She pats the human on her back and then stands back up.

Tina laughs lightly, "Yeah, that was my electrifying personality."

"I saw. Okay. Lets go back inside, I'm sure you want to go sneak around and see what your buddy volt is up to. Right?"

Tina breaks into an ornery laugh, "You better believe it." as she rushes for the door.

* * *

A/N: Weird huh? I know. And cryptic. Now the next chapter is written and ready to be posted. I think it's fun and comes complete with some high speed action and an appearance by a coffee loving mini robot. 

And I want to say that my Bluestreak is completely influenced by KayDeeBlu's. Hence any appearance by him is in homage to her stories. They're great.


	6. Coffee and Danger

A/N: Well, I just posted Chapter 5 last night but I like this one too much to hold onto it. It's short but fun. Here goes.

* * *

Tina had to have a coffee. She was beyond tired and she needed a break from work. She called in sick that Wednesday, probably not the best idea considering she wasn't sick and wasn't staying at home. She had convinced Volt to go to Starbucks. Basically, it was a ploy to get him out of the house so she could coerce him to show off his new modifications. The fiji blue car sat in the sunlight, parallel parked on the busy street as he replayed the race against Bee in his mind. Loosing the drag race to Jazz had finished it for him, he'd made up his mind. The blue mech had begged Ratchet for a turbo mod. A custom turbo mod at that. To try it out, he had raced both Jazz and Bee, beating Jazz and then some. A short time later, he met a very stunned Bumblebee at the end of the flight line. 

_"Not possible." The yellow mech said, optics wide in disbelief. _

_"Very possible, Bee. Never underestimate the power of Japanese engineering." He knew the car was more American and Canadian engineering but he didn't want to admit that to the stubborn yellow mech. It was more fun to mess with him anyway. _

_"I still beat you." Bee shrugged defiantly, ignoring Volt's taunt. _

_"Barely. Don't start." Volt rolled his optics._

_"I'm not. I'm just saying... never mind." Bee was annoyed as was too be expected. It's not everyday that you get a good run for your money from a car with half the engine you have. _

_"Bee, it's okay. You still beat him." Jazz was as always, the pacifier in a situation like this. "He beat the hell out of me, though." The jovial mech laughs heartily as he pats Volt on the back. "Good job, kid. Don't worry about Bee. He'll get over it. Bee, get your yellow aft over here."_

_Bee walks over, giving Volt a careful stare. "Well, you're fast. I'll give you that. But you still can't beat American Muscle." Bee jokingly flexes his arm while playing Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the USA" from his radio. _

_Volt shakes his head and laughs, "Bee, neither of us are _any_ earth muscle." _

_Bumblebee's optics smile back as he laughs, "I know, I just thought I'd try the V8 American car fan thing on you just because."_

_"Oh really?" Volt jokingly glares at his friend. "No more internet for you my friend."_

_"What?" His baby blue eyes plead innocence. _

Volt's attention snaps back into place as he notices the time. Tina has been inside the coffee shop for a while, no bother, she warned him the line would be a long one. Its the middle of the work week and this area is full of office buildings with humans just itching for some coffee. Just then his attention is jolted by an alert on one of his radars. A Decepticon energy signature is approaching. It's Barricade. _We'll, I'll be damned. This _can't_ be a coincidence,_ he thinks to himself. He puts up an signal disruptor shield to block himself from the scout's sensors. If he were a human, right now is a moment in which he'd be holding his breath until the possible threat passed by. He gets no such relief as the black and white Saleen parks across the street from him, between him and the store. _Between_ him and Tina. _Slag. Not good_. If he tries to alert anyone, he'll definitely be visible to the Decepticon. He has to stay silent.

The blue Si watches with one of his visual sensors, as a uniformed officer exits the vehicle. To the naked eye, the mustached man dressed in an nondescript blue uniform walks into the store, to an Autoboy "eye" and on his display it shows Frenzy cloaked in a holo avatar, walking in. _What the pit is going on?_ He knows Tina will see the "Officer" and more than likely loose her nerve upon sight of him. Volt waits patiently outside on the curb, waiting for his charge to come out, praying to Primus that nothing happens between now and her getting in the car.

Time seems to slow down for him.

----------------------------

Tina walks up to the counter, the next in line.

"Hello, welcome to Starbucks. What can we get you?"

"Hi, can I get a tall soy latte please?" Tina covers her mouth as she yawns.

"Would you like to make that a double-shot?" the apron draped girl with a lip ring asks from behind a fall cookie pop display.

"Yes. Please." Tina divvies out the necessary amount of money for her order and takes her receipt. She stops to look at a display of seasonal coffee mugs before walking over to wait by the counter to get her drink. She's the third person in line waiting on this busy Wednesday afternoon and she stares off out the window looking over at Volt. She smiles as she listens to the overhead acid jazz music, that is until her eyes see _him_._ Oh no. Not again_. She closes her eyes, willing the Saleen away but only opens them to see the mustached officer standing in line ordering 4 espressos. She turns around and pulls her sweatshirt hood up and tightens it around her face. For added effort, she pushes her sunglasses up on the bridge of her nose, hiding her face and hoping he won't see her as she hears ,"tall soy latte," from from the order pick up counter. She grabs her drink and walks out the side door praying that mustache man did not recognize her.

_How the hell do I get to Volt with that damned Saleen parked across the stree_t? She walks to the corner and stands behind the corner wall of the building, she peaks around it to see the Saleen still parked on the street by the front entrance. She leans back and peers in the window seeing mustache man pick up a tray with all four espressos. He walks to the front door and she looks around the corner again watching him get in. The thing girl hides back behind a pillar as the car starts off and pulls out of it's spot, headed her direction.

_SHIT!_ Tina bolts for the side door, jumping back in as he goes by. She hurriedly cuts through the store ignoring glares and odd looks from the patrons as she runs out the front door and across the street to Volt. Hoping into the drivers seat, she is shaking uncontrollably. "Jesus, friggin'... that was close." She sinks in the seat letting out an exacerbated breath of relief. "I think it's best we get the hell away from here, Volt."

"Agreed. Where do you want to go? Anywhere in particular?" His voice comes through the stereo.

"I don't know. I can't think right now. I'm too... rattled. Just drive where ever I'll figure it out as we go."

"No problem, Tina. How did you manage to hide from Frenzy?"

"Frenzy?"_That was Frenzy?_ She pushes the hood off of her head and settles into the seat more comfortably.

"The mustached officer you saw inside was a replication of Barricade's avatar only inside of it was a very hyper, obviously caffeine obsessed Frenzy." It was no surprise to them that the little bot had managed to not only get saved after his near death decapitation, but he was fixed and feistier than ever.

Volt pulls out on to the highway and opens it up, throwing Tina back in the seat. "Woooooo! She lets out. Show off. I like. I like it a lot. So did all that work hurt?"

"No not really. Ratchet has some good pain killers to take the edge off. It was all worth it though." His voice sounds very happy as it resonates through the speakers.

"Yeah, Arcee told me Bee's ego was a little bruised." She chuckles as she sips her now rapidly chilling latte.

"No not bruised, just threatened. He's over it though. I think it was the initial surprise that got him."

"I see." She smiles patting the steering wheel. She watches the scenery go by and just relaxes staring more at the numerous monitors in front of her rather than the road. She doesn't need to since she isn't driving. She watches the blue and red screens carefully, amazed at their intricate designs when a red dot on one catches her eye. "Um, Volt? Is this what I think it is?"

"Slag, hod on." Tina does exactly that as Volt accelerates rapidly, dodging cars in traffic. She turns around in her seat and sees Barricade closing in swiftly on them. She sinks down in the seat as they rocket down an off ramp and across the intersection, pulling a hard right. Barricade who had a moment before been hot on their tail, looses grip and spins out as Volt speeds off down the open and wide road. They're on the edge of the suburbs in an open area not full of much other than construction. Luckily the roads are empty. Tina counts her chickens before they hatch as a dump truck pulls out in front of them. Volt gracefully dodges the truck but gains the attention of another cop car, this one a unmarked state police car doing radar ops on the side of the road. The unmarked car pulls out in pursuit of the speeding Honda but doesn't see the black Saleen speeding after them, his lights and sirens blinking and wailing continuously until it's too late and he is sideswiped. The unmarked car looses control and plows into a ditch on the side of the road. The Saleen, unrelentless in its chase speeds on after them as if nothing had just happened.

Tina stares back in shock at what was occurring behind them. Volt speeds up, his voice sounds alarmed as he speaks over the whistle of his own engine and turbo, "Tina I have to drop you somewhere. I'm afraid this might get messy."

"Uh huh." Tina looks out the windshield and sees what looks to be an abandonded and half build subdivision. "In there!" she shouts pointing at the entry way. Volt pulls a hard right into the entry way and swerves down the empty streets lined with the graying skeletons of partially built homes. The Si brakes hard and backs into the garage of one of the decaying structures. Barricade won't see them until he's right in front of the garage.

"Tina, get out, please. Hide."

She wastes no time exiting the car and running into the house somehow still carrying the coffee which she throws on what must have been intended to be a living room floor. She hears the roar and whine of the Saleen's supercharged 4.6L coming down the street. Complete with screeching brakes as he backs up just past the house. She runs up some stairs and into a room over looking the driveway. She looks out the window and hears the sound of Volt speeding out of the garage. The scared but worried girl watches out of the second story window as Volt transforms at the end of the driveway, landing on the back of the Saleen. A loud howl emanates from the Decepticon as he transforms and kicks volt off of him. Tina flinches at the strike.

Both mechs stand up, Barricade brandishes something spinning, metal and very painful looking. Volt holds a metal tube in his hand that, instantly, two energy bars come out of. Tina stares in disbelief at the energy bo staff in his hand. _Where the hell did that come from?_

Tina freezes in place as Barricade looks up at the window she is standing in. She moves back but realizes she is too late when she hears the chatter of metal feet coming up the stairs. _Shit, Sam is never going to believe this crap_.

She doesn't hide. The little metal bastard will find her where ever she goes, she just stays very quiet. She silently stands in the window and watches the battle play out before her, barely breathing. Barricade moves forward and swings his blades at Volt. Volt blocks them with his staff, turning the object he flings them out of Barricade's hand and gives the slightly larger mech a challenging grin. Volt rushes forward, spinning the bo staff at Barricade hitting him in the leg and taking him down. As Barricade falls Volt nails him in the chest hard with the staff, knocking the mech off line for a moment. He turns to the house, "Tina! Are you okay."

She climbs out onto the roof above the garage. Not the best idea but one that works considering a sharp cd wielding, automatic machine gun toting mini robot of death is somewhere upstairs with her. "I'm okay for now." She spots a beat up old tarp next to the low hanging roof and slips down to it. The splinters in the cheap wood snagging the legs of her jeans. She lands with a thud on the tarp and ground, crying out in pain and grabs her leg. She gets up and moves away, more like limps away, from the house. She makes the mistake of looking up a the window she had just climbed out of and sees Frenzy watching her, snickering and chattering away as he is known to do. She gives the little bot the finger and ducks as he sends one of his sharp discs her way. "You better watch it, Frenzy!" She shouts from the cover of the garage over hang, "You don't want to chop your head off again do you?" She is answered with an angry string of what she can guess are cybertronian cuss words followed with one well place and English, "Bitch!" Tina laughs at the sound of him.

She grabs her leg again as pain shoots down it and turns around to see Barricade getting up behind Volt and looking extremely pissed off. "Volt! Behind you!" She points a milisecond too late as a shot from Barricades gun into his back, knocks the blue mech over, momentarily stunned. "Shit!" Tina yells as Barricade comes up the driveway after her. She runs back through the house and out the back door. Something as simple as a rotting wooden house doesn't stop the angry Decepticon as he plows through the soft wooden structure. A surprised wail from a falling Frenzy is added to the racket of the splintering and falling wood.

Tina doesn't look back as she runs across the back yard and ducks into the house next to the now destroyed one, hoping he didn't see her. She hears the thumping sound of large metal feet coming towards the house from the back, she bolts out the front door into the street and gets tackled by an angry Frenzy. Tina covers up her face as the little ball of fury scratches at her cussing nonstop like a deranged tourettes patient. "Get the hell off of me!" She yanks hard on a small left arm, trying to wrench it loose but it won't give.

A booming voice says something in what she knows is Cybertronian behind them both. Frenzy lets go and moves away from her, still chattering. On her back in the middle of the street, Tina stares up 18 feet into the glowing red optics of a very angry enemy robot. "Damn." She laughs nervously as a large hand reaches down and grabs her and picks her up off of the ground, squeezing a little too hard. "Are you trying to squish me? I know what you're capable of, Barricade. Evidently, you want my boney ass for something so why splatter my guts all over the asphalt?"

His black, silver and bronze face stares back impassively at her her. He doesn't respond to her or loosen his grip. Holding her at a distance, he appears to squint at her, she repeats the same look and chuckles. "Oh, you do need me for something, huh? Squish me and Starscream will slag your aft into the next orn huh?" She now realizes she's been around the Autobots enough to pick up on some of their words. Well, at least the English version anyway. "Ohhhhh, I'm right aren't I?" She laughs again and he squeezes a bit harder, pushing the air out. She feels a pop in her chest. _Ow! Thats a rib_.

"You disgusting virus. When the time comes and we're done with whatever it is Starscream needs you for, I will take great joy in ripping you limb from limb." His optics flare at her and for a second she feels a ripple of fear in her body. He looks absolutely menacing. Time seems to stand still and she hears nothing but his laughter. The air seems dead. "A useful human..."As he laughs another deep but wicked laugh at her, bearing what seems to be pointy teeth, she feels a jolt hit her hard. Almost as if she just felt the mother of all adrenaline rushes. The black and white mech looks at her in surprise as his optics flickerr and his hand opens up as he falls back, dropping her to the ground. She lands hard, hitting her head on the asphalt. She tries to look up but everything goes black.

_Not good._ Are the last thoughts she remembers having.


	7. Battlechargers are watching

A/N: In a world where giant, sentient robots who can feel and act just as we do, would it be so strange as to believe that there are unique and gifted humans as well? Based on the idea of the New Avengers and with the intention of creating a bridge into another comic/comic crossover (Not the Avengers but close, it's another group that everyone loves :-)), The Decepticons attempt a more stealthy approach and Tina's feeling that something isn't right just doesn't go away.

I'm actually a little bit uncomfortable about going this route, that is why I ask for opinions. There's going to be some dirty rotten Decepitcon stuff coming up but I have to get this character developement crap out of the way first. I didn't want this story to be about only Tina, I want it to be about Volt and the Autobots too. Their relationship is about to get put into overdrive. Stay tuned for some drama and smart ass comedy. Including some Sunstreaker harassment. The girls seem to like to try and instigate him. Lol.

* * *

Four. 

Four long weeks. Two broken ribs, 1 nasty concussion, 10 stitches in her head which resulted in a new haircut (Miss Portman in V for Vendetta anyone?), a sprained knee and a broken left arm. It had been the week, or weeks, from hell. Thankfully, Volt had remembered her emergency data and had Ratchet take her to the University Medical Center where she was under the care of her close friend and former mentor Dr. Tohiro Tanaka.

Too many tests. One surgery, under the cover of the stitches in her head and she was back to normal. Well, as normal as normal can be considering she looked like she fell off of a highway overpass during rush hour. Getting dressed had become a daunting task that often left her in some contorted position that required the help of a nurse to free her from. Tina sat on the bed in her hospital room with her trusty black backpack at her feet. She wore the easiest thing she could get on. An oversized teeshirt from college, sweat shorts, and slip on keds. For added effect, she wore a crazy ski hat, complete with a fuzz ball on the top.

There was a light knock at the door, startled, Tina looked up to see the kind eyes of Dr. Tanaka staring back at her. The doctor was slightly shorter than her and had beautiful silver hair on his temples. His almond shaped eyes smiled at her behind his bifocal glasses, his hands in his pockets and a stethoscope around his neck. Tina giggles at him, wincing at the pain in her ribs. "You look so... doctorly."

"How should I look?" He asked with a slight smile and chuckle as he walked over to the bed.

"I guess this is fitting. I'm still just so used to you having the mad scientist look. Something weird wrapped around your head and eighthousand electrical thingy-mo-gobs hanging off of you."

"We'll now your the one with the thingy-ma-gobs. " He patted her on the back. "You'll be back to normal soon. You've always been a quick healer. Just don't forget what we talked about."

"I know," She rolls her eyes heavenward, "Practice. Practice. Practice. Get a hold on your abilities and learn blah, blah, blah. And whatever you do, don't loose your temper." She laughed as he frowned at her.

"Come back and let me know how things are going, okay?" The Dr. looked very concerned at his former student.

"Yes, I will." She smiled respectively up at her former professor. Just then a nurse came to the door and knocked. Both Tina and Tohiro turned to see the always pleasant, red haired nurse smiling kindly back at them.

"Miss Littorio, your ride is here."

"Thank you, Rose." Tina smiled at the nurse as she stepped back out of the door with a wheelchair which she groaned at upon seeing. Tina hated wheelchairs, well, when other people were driving them. She got off of the bed and gave Dr. Tanaka a hug. "I'll call you in a few weeks? Maybe we can do lunch or something?"

"That sounds good, Tina. It's been too long." He smiled that fatherly smile at her again as she picked up her back with her right hand. "Well, Tohiro, I'll be seeing ya."

"Bye, Tina. Remember, practice."

She gives him the "rock on" gesture and a hearty "Woot!" with her right hand as Nurse Rose wheels her to the elevator.

Mikela grabs Tina's bag as Nurse Rose finally allows her to get out of the wheelchair just outside of the front door of the lobby. "Take care, Rose." She says giving the pleasantly plump nurse a big hug. "I'm gonna miss the Pooh scrubs."

"Bye, Tina. Take care and take it easy, k?" Tina swears Rose tears up as the woman gives her a tender but strong hug.

"I will." She says as she walks off behind Mikela. Both girls walk to the back of the car, Volt automatically popping the trunk for them.

"Are you hungry?" Mikela asks as she tosses Tina's bag in the trunk.

"Oh my god, you read my mind. I need IHOP bad." Tina grabs her stomach with her good hand.

"Okay." Mikela walks to the passenger side and puts the seat back, hoping in the rear. Tina walks to the drivers side and tries the door, which is locked.

"Volt, come on!" She stands back as the window rolls down and a young man with light brown hair and wrap around sunglasses stares back at her. The smile on his face is simply devilish as he lowers the sunglasses, showing her his smiling big brown eyes and well chiseled jaw. "Ummmm. Uh..?"

"Hi, Tina." The guy says to her seeming overly familiar. "How did you expect to drive with a broken arm and a brace on your leg?" He flashes her a movie star grin.

"..."

"It's me, Tina. Stop playing." He rolls his big brown eyes and she just about dies laughing.

"Volt?"

"In the.. er.. flesh?" He says seeming unsure.

"That doesn't really count here." Comes Mikela's voice from the back seat. Tina shakes her head as she walks around and climbs into the passenger seat. She stares intently at him from head to toe.

"Okay, Mik', you had something to do with this. I know it." She pokes Volt in his arm, leaving a crinkle mark on the jacket his wearing where her finger had just been. "Whoa, you're... real. sort of. Whoa." She looks him up from head to toe, "Are you?... never mind."

"Tina!" Mikela yells at her from the back seat.

"What? Painkillers remember? Blame them. There's just so much attention to detail. I mean, damn, you're hair is moving in the breeze."

"So, I'll take it you approve?" Volt gives her a lopsided grin as they pull out onto the highway.

"Um, yeah." She sits back in her seat and gets a slap on the shoulder from Mikela. A shriek of pain from Tina piercing the car's quiet interior. "OW! Broken arm remember?"

"Sorry!" Mikela makes the mother of all 'oops' faces. " So, tell me, what happened?"

"When?"

"What the hell do you mean, when? I mean, before scared the shit out of Barricade and got knocked out." Mikela has somehow found a way to comfortably sit on the small bump that is in between the two rear seats. Not the most comfortable place to be. They hit a slight bump and her head hits the ceiling. "Ow."

"He chased me down, won the race, wanted to keep me as a trophy, his butt had a power surge and he dropped me like a rag doll." Tina had four weeks to come up with an answer to that exact question.

"Bull." Mikela slides over into one of the bucket seats and strapped her seatbelt on. A habit she had gotten into after Sam's constant hounding. "I'm sure we'll get the real story later. Right?"

"Yes." Tina sat back in her seat and pulled her floppy ski cap lower over her head and pushed her sunglasses up further on her face as she got comfortable. "I need sustenance or I'm going to die of hospital food poisoning!"

Both Mikela and Volt laugh as they cruise down the road in search of food.

----------------------------------------------

From across the parking lot, blending into the backdrop of numerous undistinguishable cars, they watched her hug the large woman then descend down the steps to the blue Honda. The blue _Autobot_ honda. The human female had survived her fall, survived a fall that should have killed her. Now here she is, hobbling down the stairs with a cast on her arm, a brace on her knee and a shorn head complete with a line of stitches along the side of her head, which she tried to hide under a strange looking ski cap. She has held up quite well considering how fragile the fleshies are. Whether this was because of her unique physiology or some random streak of luck, they do not know, neither do they care. Their orders are simple, follow her, study her more and do not be seen. The lack of markings on the black and silver Camaros made them a little less obvious than Barricade's black and white police vehicle and still unrecognized by the curious human and her Autobot guardian.

Both vehicles are plain, unmarked, and in rather common colors, making them the perfect guise in which to study her more. The only drawl back to this mission, was that they would not be able to break cover. Not yet anyway. Runabout and Runamuck both patiently, yet anxiously, await the day when that cover could be broken and they could yet again dance to the sweet symphony of destruction and terror.

"Sent to spy... how long must we do this, Runamuck?" Runabout detested being forced to hold himself back from his natural talents, creating chaos and wreaking havoc. For now he could only let the tension build inside of him while he awaited its release.

"Until we are told otherwise. I too am not happy about this but it must be done, Runaabout." Runamuck wanted just as much as his comrade to take out at least one Autobot right now. But like the girl, they were ordered not to destroy her "car" either. "It may be needed to be used as a tool of persuasion later," Starscream had directed them. Supposedly, from what they had learned from Frenzy's excellent information finding, the girl was extremely attached to the vehicle. Even before discovering it's true identity, she had an unnatural affection for it. Spending way too much time with the vehicle, it would come in handy should she not see the genius of their ways and decided to fight back. The Autobot Volt had become a leverage tool.

As Volt pulls away from the curb and out onto the main road, they follow at a safe distance, placing a few cars between the themselves and the SI. The Honda turns left at the next light and both Camaros speed up to make it through the yellow light, still behind, they resume their conversation over their comm link.

"So please remind me why we're doing this when only a few weeks ago, Barricade was sent to collect her, Runamuck?" Runabout speeds up slightly and swerves _at_ a lone pedestrian crossing a crosswalk. Laughing as the skinny and haggard man jumps back and screams a toothless barrage of swears at him, grimy fists raised in anger.

"Because things changed. _She_'s the one who injured Barricade, not the Autobot. Starscream wants to know more about her before we take her." Runamuck pulls slightly ahead as yet another light turns amber. Runamuck follows suit.

"Okay, but does she know what she did?" The situation surrounding this human gets stranger and stranger each passing solar cycle.

"According to the data that Frenzy acquired from her friend and medic Tanaka's computer, yes she does know."

"So, she's_ that _valuable to us then?" Runabout was confused about the Tina human's condition. They seem to be such a violent race as a whole. A small fact that does make them a slight bit more valuable in his opinion.

"Yes and then some," Runamuck's voice trails off as they slow down allowing them to see where the SI is headed. The blue Honda pulls into a parking lot at an IHoP and the two Camaro's turn and park across the street, keeping the restaurant in view.

"Sent to watch. What a fragging waste of time this is. " The black Camaro watches as three people exit. Two human females and one male. The male was driving the car. "He's a new addition. Who is that? The female with the long hair is usually seen with the Witwicky boy and that squirt Bumblebee, but who is the male?"

"I don't know, Runabout. That, I do not know. For now, we wait." Both the Silver and the Black do not move a wheel as all three humans walk into the restaurant. They do exactly that, they wait.

------------------------------

"So, you have a big announcement to make tonight?" Mikela picks at the remains of her decimated waffle with her fork. Volt just sits at the table drinking nothing, eating nothing while Tina stares at him in disbelief as she looks at the SI which is parked just outside of the window and then back to him.

"Yes, I'm not telling ahead of time so don't ask." Tina shoves another fork full of delicious strawberry crepe into her mouth, savoring it's sweet flavor. The only sweet she got in the hospital was jello, bad ice cream and the occasional cookie or chocolate Rose would sneak into her room. She swallows and leans forward, speaking barely above a whisper. "Volt, how the hell are you doing that. I mean, this. You're in here. With us?"

"The avatars have a limited range but we're well within it. So, here I am." He clasps his hands on the table and Tina still stares at him in amazement. She points a fork in Mikela's direction, "Did she put you up to this?"

Mikela begins to laugh and almost chokes on a chunk of waffle. "I only provided inspiration in the form of what kind of guys you talked about with Maggie and I. I am innocent here."

Volt nods in agreement and only shrugs as the waitress asks if they need anything else and hands Tina the bill.

"I'll meet you two at the car. I've got this." Tina walks to the register and pays the bill as Mikela and Volt head back out to the car. As she walks out the door she stops to readjust her hat again and inhales the crisp morning air. The day seems nice enough, benign enough but there is a nagging feeling somewhere deep inside of her that she is being watched and not being watched by a friendly. She looks around for anything out of the ordinary that may be within sight and only sees some cars parked across the street at an office building. A few SUV's, a station wagon, one haggard looking old Subaru, two Camaro's and a Harley Davidson. Nothing to worry about. There are no Saleen cop cars, helicopters or fighter jets flying over head. She figures she's being paranoid and heads back to the car, satisfied that she had her IHOP.

-------------------------------------

"Teeny!" Tina grins ear to ear as she hears Jazz call her nickname. The ever cheerful mech does a little dance in the hall upon seeing her.

"I'd do a dance too, Jazz, but right now it can only be the Humpty dance." She literally limps to her side and wiggles just like the song says.

"So, no hint as to what this big announcement is huh?" He raises both optic ridges at her playfully and she puts her tongue in her cheek. "Nope. Sorry, you'll have to wait."

Jazz smiles down at her and gives her a thumbs up, "Okay, we'll all be in there shortly then."

Tina smiles at him as he walks off and she makes her way to the recreation room. She can't help but laugh upon entering. Someone had gone so far as to decorate the room with streamers, balloons and a "Welcome home" sign. The fact that Glen and Sam are sitting in front of the TV, each with two party hats on his head, points them out to be the culprits. Tina almost falls over laughing as she notices that even Bumblebee has a party hat on _his_ head. "Holy shit, Bee. You look like Jack from Jack in the Box." She laughs even harder as Bumblebee plays a snippet from a Jack in the Box commercial through his radio.

Glenn pauses his game and jumps up and gives Tina a quick hug. "Glad to see you're in one piece. We still goin' tomorrow?" Tina's Aunt, Uncle and two brothers are flying into to see her. After her accident, they figured it was time for a trip so Uncle Salvo, Aunt Donna conned Lou and Andre into taking time off of work to come see here. It wasn't an easy task considering that Tina, Lou and Andre hadn't talked in a long time. But they were going to be there tomorrow and she was looking forward to seeing them all.

"Yep. We're still going. Did Donna send you their itinerary?" Tina carefully lowered herself into a chair and pulled off the brace and violently scratched her leg. Her leg was itching something fierce.

"Yep. It's in my phone. I'll pick you up. I rented a big ole' SUV." He grins as he holds his hand out wide apart. "You know, while a Lamborghini would be nice, there's a space issue."

"And the mood swings." She chuckled.

"That too. Here, have some juice." he hands her a cup and she sips on it as bots and people alike start to enter the room. Maggie rushes over to Tina and sits down in the chair next to her, practically squeezing both of them out of it. While both are thin, the chair can only hold so much. Tina groans slightly in pain as Maggie gives her a huge hug.

"Oh my god. Oh my god. I thought you were going to die." Maggie leans back and sighs relieved upon seeing her friend in one piece. "I would have been in here earlier, but someone," The unusually hyper blonde gives Sunstreaker a death glare which is met with an equally deadly look from the yellow bot. "Someone, had to loose it. Again. On his brother. They're like eternal teenagers only one has massive anger issues and is heavily armed."

"And the other has a twisted sense of humour and is equally heavily armed."

"Exactly!"

Greetings get passed around the room as they all enter. Tina smiles warmly up at Optimus as he enters. "Welcome back, Tina. It's good to see you are better. I know Volt is happy to have you back in one piece as well." Tina looks over to Volt who gives her an agreeing nod. "Whenever you're ready, Tina..." Optimus already knows of what Tina is going to tell them. Her hospitalization was under the watchful eye of the U.S. government. Details surrounding her care and situation had been coordinated through none other than Tom Banechek, former employee and officer of Sector Seven. Still a federal employee but no longer part of the terminated Sector Seven division, he was still involved with many facets of the government involving the unexplained or just highly classified. One of those classified things being the Autobots. Another responsibility of his is coordinating inter departmental activities or events. One such even being Tina's "incident" with Barricade. Mr. Banechek had informed Optimus Prime of Tina's secret.

Tina nods at Prime and stands up. Maggie jumps up to help her do so. The injured girl thanks her friend who responds with a wink and a grin. "So, who wants to know what happened out there?" She tries the comedic approach because it's just easier. They all, human and Transformer alike, nod in unison. She inhales deeply as removes her hat and unzips the sweatshirt she had on over her tee shirt, showing the bruises and multiple needle marks on her right arm. _"_Well_, I_ happened."


	8. We gotta time bomb

In a large dark room, several hundred miles from where Tina is explaining the circumstances surrounding her incident with Barricade, a lone figure sits in an oversized metallic chair, silently studying the data before him. A three dimensional holographic display a miniature version of Tina, made entirely of light, spins slowly next to copied images of Dr. Tanaka's files which had been expertly stolen from the hospital's database by Frenzy a few solar-cycles ago. Rhythmically tapping his fingers on the edge, a sly grin curls up on Starscream's face as he contemplates the sheer limitless potential of the human's abilities.

The door to the room opens briefly, spilling the shadow of another mech across the display as Skywarp enters into the room. Starscream rolls his optics skyward at the intrusion as his thoughts are interrupted by Skywarp. "A grin like that must mean you've come across something good."

Starscream sets his jaw and doesn't bother to look in Skywarp's direction as he responds gruffly, "thats putting it lightly."

"Meaning?" The black and purple mech crosses his arms as he watches the slowly spinning hologram and Starscream's intense stare at the the object.

The current leader of the Earth based Decepticons leans back in his chair and clasps his massive hands together and rests them in his lap as he searches for the easiest way to explain his plan to his fellow Seeker. "I don't think the human is aware of her abilities or at least their full extent. This man," He leans forward and presses a button on the control panel as a holographic image of Dr. Tanaka, matching that on the doctor's medical access badge, appears in front of him. "_He_ is aware. It seems this Tanaka person has been a mentor and teacher to the girl since the first discovery of her abilities when she was younger. He's run tests and experiments on her and while she had denied her abilities he embraced them. Seeing her as a possible step in evolution for their kind. Perhaps he is right."

Starscream presses another button and the images of the files expand to a larger size. He points out a summary report on Tina that had been written only 3 days before she checked out of the hospital. This time he turns to Skywarp with the same smirk on his face but something darker lurking behind it. "It seems I was right all along. She is an independent energy source. A massive one. The human," he chuckles as he sits back again," is capable of producing pure, electric based, energy on a massive level. She can redirect that energy two ways, providing it such ways as recharging and as a weapon and as Barricade is already aware. She can create directional EMPs."

Skywarp looks positively confused. Humans are weak and fragile. They have discovered that some have unique abilities but nothing like this. How is it possible that one lone human girl is capable of providing something so great to their kind? He shakes his head trying to fathom it all. "How?"

The smirk clears from Starscream's face as he clicks away at buttons, cycling through the pages of the virtual documents before him. "Unique and mutated physiology? So far, that's all I can gather. Seems it all started after the girl was struck by lightning a few earth years ago, when she was younger. Three direct hits, none of which harmed her in the slightest." He turns back to Skywarp, his face serious as he shares more info with his fellow seeker, "surviving a lightning strike is rare but possible for humans. Some have survived two but _three _direct hits is nearly unheard of. After surviving them, Tanaka claims, she was capable of charging electronic items just by touch, she managed to destroy two computers with a low level EMP blast just by getting angry and being in their vicinity," He turns to Skywarp with an amused grin on his face, "I think I like this human."

Skywarp leans back against the wall, staring at the display, "so you plan on using her as a weapon?"

"Yes and no. A weapon and a power source. Let's face it, the human fuels are far inferior and using them to synthesize fuel for us is time consuming and it doesn't yield much. Until we find a more permanent solution," he holds his hand out towards the virtual Tina before him, "the human will do quite well. The only problem is getting her to comply."

"I thought that's what you want to get her Autobot companion for."

"It is but humans are, unfortunately, complex creatures when their emotions are involved." Starscream presses yet another button and the display goes blank. He stands up and moves towards the door, Skywarp follows. "Perhaps we should get the good doctor when the time is right. In the mean time, just continue having the Battlechargers follow her and watch her carefully. By now the Autobots know what she's capable of and I'm sure she's started exploring her abilities out of a need to survive. When the time is right, we'll make our move."

* * *

Back at the Autobot base, Tina Littorio has managed to wrap herself up in enough clothing that she now bares an uncanny resemblance to Kenny from South Park. Jazz chuckles as he walks into the Med bay and sees her, perched atop one of Ratchet's exam tables, with her feet hanging over the edge and her face the only visible skin on her. 

"Gee, Tina, ya cold?" He jokes as the smaller mech sits down on the closest mobile stool.

"Uhhh huh. I know you guys have an operating temperature that's through the roof but I don't. It's like Alaska in here." She buries her face a little further into her hood and lets out a muffled chuckle from under the edge of it.

"Bummer. So whats new? Got any cool tricks to show off?" Two weeks had passed since Tina had divulged her secret to the Autobots at her welcome back party. They had taken it pretty well considering that she felt like a whole new responsibility dropped in their laps. Actually, most of them were pretty excited to hear about it. Mr. Banachek had spoken to Dr. Tanaka about working with her to develop her abilities and she had been surprised to find out that he was coming to the base tomorrow afternoon. Dr. Tanaka would be working with Ratchet while Tina worked on exploring her abilities and to also combine their knowledge and technology for any enhancements she may need. Again, Tina felt like a science experiment. Life just got stranger and stranger everyday. She was starting to loose sight of who she is. Even when she looks in the mirror she sees a different person now. But luckily, having friends like Volt and the rest of the Autobots as well as good, old loyal, Glenn and Maggie along with Sam and Mikela, kept her spirits up. Just as this was new to her, so much more was new to them. Their constant open minded approach to things left her grinning in enjoyment.

"Sure, Jazz." She flashes a winning smile at him, "give me your hand. Please."

The white and blue mech steps closer to where she sits and lowers his hand to her, curiosity on his face. He watches her carefully as she closes her eyes and places her palm in his. At first he only feels what seems to be a slight tickling sensation where her hand meets his, then it grows to a small vibration and pleasurable warmth as the feeling crawls up his arm. She opens her eyes and watches him carefully as the sensation fades and he smiles.

"So? How do you feel?" She asks with the tone of a caring physician.

The mech blinks his optics rapidly as he looks at his hands and nods slightly, "Awake. What did you do?"

"Just a slight recharge. I started on remotes and worked my way up." She sits up, a look of pride on her face as smiles. An "oh" appears on Tina's face as she seems to remember some important detail. "Check this out." She jumps off of th table and runs over to the side of the room where her ipod rests inside of the JBL stereo she had brought from her house the week prior. Tina pulls a string of party lights out of her backpack and turns to Jazz grinning ear to ear. " I've been working on this on my own. It's just another parlor trick but it's good. I swear."

Jazz watches silently as she sets up her props only stopping to push her hood back from her face showing her now short cropped and slightly curly hair which is matted to her head. Large hoop earing swinbing with every move, she looks like the physical representation of energy. Just then the door opens and Volt walks in. Tina looks up from what she's doing and gives him the same huge grin she had given Jazz only a moment before. "Yes! Volt! You're here. I've been wanting to show you this."

"Hello to you too, Tina." The blue mech stops next to Jazz and taps him on the shoulder,"What is she up to?"

"Dunno. I think another parlor trick."

A slight snort escapes Volt's vocal circuits, "this ought to be entertaining knowing her. I see she has her trusty iPod out. Oh boy." He chuckles softly watching her scurry about by the table.

"Okay. No laughing. Only enjoyment here, boys." She strips off her jacket and throws it to the side as she cracks her knuckles, resembling a conductor of an orchestra as the silence before the song winds down. A voice shouting something like "A sucker headphone..." comes from the speakers as Tina starts bopping her head with the music and raises her hands over the lights. As Beck says "We got a time bomb..." She waves her hands over the lights, lighting up each color with the beat and the lyrics. She claps her hands together along with the line, "We got a red alert" all of the red lights light up to her clap. Tina giggles along with the music and dances the length of the light string, tapping, waving, and clapping along with the song creating an effect that is as upbeat as the song she's listening too. Clearly enjoying herself, both Jazz and Volt watch the happy girl with a grin on both of their faces. They're both happy to see her embracing her abilities rather than shunning them.

The music stops and Tina turns on her heel giving them both a rather theatrical bow as the door to the med bay opens again, a rather curious looking expression on his face, Ratchet stands in the doorway.

"What is going on in here?" He asks as he walks into the large room.

Two pairs of blue optics and one pair of green eyes turn to the door, all three looking guilty. Tina chuckles lightly as she explains that she was showing Volt and Jazz some of her new tricks. Ratchet shakes his head at the small human and the two smaller mechs before him, "Don't encourage her. It's a new thing everyday. _I'm_ even having a hard time keeping up."

Tina giggles from the side of the room as she cleans up her "props". Ratchet is right, she does seem to have a new discovery of her limits almost everyday. For once in her life, she's excited about them. It's sort of like being reborn, she had told Volt the week before. Everyone, both alien and human alike, had been so supportive. She had returned to her chipper self almost immediately upon her release from the Hospital.

"Tina," Ratchet said as he turned to the monitors and computer at the workstation adjacent the exam table, "we're done for today. I have to go over your tests and such. Same time tomorrow and Dr. Tanaka will be here. Oh, and don't bring the stereo."

The girl rolls her eyes behind him which warrants a chuckle from Volt and Jazz both to which Ratchet turns around and carefully eyes all three of them. All of them raise their hands in innocence and smile as they exit the room.

"You ready to go?" Volt asks as they walk out into the hall.

Tina nods as she hoists her backpack up onto her shoulder. Wincing slightly as the pain transfers to her healing but still sore left arm.

"Whats the plan, kids?" Jazz asks from ahead of them both.

"Tina's headed home for the night. Arcee and I are going with her. Optimus thinks it's best we have at least two of us with her for now.

Jazz nods at the statement and waves as he stops at the Comm room. "Sounds good. I'll see you two tomorrow. Be safe."

Tina flashes him a grin and a "thumbs up" as she and Volt head towards the exit.

Upon stepping out in to the night air, Tina looks up at what stars are visible through the smog that covers the early fall, Southern California sky. "Somewhere up in there, in all of that is your home, Volt." The blue mech next to her nods slowly in agreement. Tina looks down at her hands and thinks about what she's learned so far about herself. "Anything is possible. " She says as she closes her hand and holds it up to her chin, staring up at the stars again. "Even getting out of here and going up there. I always wondered about it, but now, now it all seems so real." She opens her hands by her sides again and thinks about their abilities, "I just wonder how soon and how real."

She reaches up to his hand and touches the tip of one of his fingers, sending a small amount of energy through to him, she smiles as he gives her a surprised look. " I don't need you slipping into recharge on the way home." She winks at him.

"No worries, Tina. No worries." He smiles down at her before transforming into the form she's most familiar with. Tina climbs in and leans back into the seat, still thinking about all the possibilities the universe holds. Arcee takes only a minute to catch up with them on the highway as both the pink Buell Thunderbolt and the Blue Civic Si play a game of cat and mouse on the highway, a silent but sleepy girl out cold in the passenger seat.

* * *

"So, did you see what I was talking about?" the pink motorcycle in the corner of the 2 car garage asks as they both sit waiting for the next day to begin. 

"Yep, I saw." Volt answers as he scans the internet for anything to keep him entertained.

Arcee is silent for a moment as she checks her own radar, searching the area for the two signatures she had noticed earlier." They aren't trying anything. That's totally unlike Runabout and Runamuck. I don't get it." Seeing that both of the Camaro's are parked lower down the hill, approximately 2miles away she is teetering on the edge of a slightly more relaxed side of uncomfortable.

Volt takes a time out from his search to consider everything Arcee has said while scanning the house to ensure Tina is safe. Seeing that she is indeed, still in her bed and sleeping soundly, he relaxes a bit. "Until they do do something, we can't do anything. I just wonder how long they've been watching without us noticing. Without _me_ noticing."

"No telling" Arcee says before the night drags on. She wonders the same, not about Volt, but about them all.

* * *

6:35 am. 

The alarm had buzzed incessantly until she dragged herself from the bed to her kitchen for some orange juice and a bagel. Tina eyeballed the door to the garage as half of the buttered bagle hung from between her lips. Opening the door without much flair, she switches the light on and plops down on the step at the bottom of it, rubbing her eyes as she mutters a barely understandable "sorry," referring to the sudden blinding light she's sure Arcee and Volt felt as the lights flickered on.

"I slept like shit." She mutters, chewing on the tough, freezer burnt bagel and sipping on her orange juice with extra pulp.

"Why's that?" Comes from volt parked to the far right of the garage from where she sat on the stoop.

"I couldn't shake a feeling that something wasn't right. Like we weren't alone." Tina said rubbing a hand through her messy bed head.

This is a moment at which Arcee and Volt would share sidelong glances were they either human or in their regular robot modes. Instead Arcee's pink Thunderbolt form askes from it's position in the left part of the garage," What do you mean?" comes from them both almost simultaneously.

Tina yanks a rubbery bagel chunk from her mouth giving Arcee a half lidded look." Maybe I'm being paranoid, but someone is watching us. I can feel it, 'Cee. It's weird and unsettling. Then I had nightmares about that Barricade asshole all night. Not exactly good sleeping material." She chews on the chewy bagel chunk and swallows, wincing as it goes down painfully wrong and she desperately chugs some O.J. to wash it down. She coughs a bit then rubs her face with her hand as she gets up from the stoop and walks over to something draped along the work bench at the head of the garage. Pulling on the cover, Tina reveals a pristine raven Yamaha R1 motorcycle. Laughing she leans down to it, "If you have anything to say, now's the time to say it. I don't need any surprises at 75 miles per hour." the bike says nothing and Tina smirks.

"Nothing personal you too. Specially you, Volt." She walks over and runs a her hand over the car's smooth roof line sending a small vibration of energy into his metal skin. She smiles down at him, "I haven't ridden it in a while. I'll stay with you both."

Volt knows that Tina only rides the bike when she's very troubled. She hadn't touched it since returning from the hospital but her unveiling it today means she's aware, to some extent, of Runabout and Runamuck's presence one way or the other.

Arcee speaks up first, "Tina. I don't think it's a good idea that you ride on your own..."

Volt interrupts her, "we'll be right on you, 'Teen."

A moment pauses between all three before Arcee breaks the silence, "Yes. We'll be behind you."

Tina smiles at both as she heads back to the door to the garage, "Thanks, both of you." She disappears through the doorway, headed towards the shower.

* * *

A now clean and ready to face the world, Tina Littorio emerges from the house dressed head to toe in black leather. Utterly indistinguishable as either male or female in her full ride gear, she mounts her raven R1 and takes off towards the highway, constantly checking her mirrors. The only vehicles she sees trailing her the entire way are Arcee and Volt. Smiling to herself and feeling a little more at ease, she pushes the throttle a little more, hurriedly making her way to the base, both Autobots hot on her trail. 

What she doesn't see and isn't ware of still, are the black and silver Camaros which Arcee and Volt are well aware of and see following them both during the busy morning commute.

* * *

It's lunch time. She snuck out on the motorcycle to enjoy the perfect early fall afternnoon in ever sunny southern California. She'd been gone for a half hour, in that time she'd managed to scarf down a lunch box special at YoGo sushi and made her way to the beach. A cool breeze blew in from the west as she leaned over the edge of the pier staring down into the endless frothy waves that lapped against the pylons. Old men fished up and down the pier and she admired their will to sit there, day in and day out, in hop of catching something other than Mackrel or smaller fish. They hoped for more than what they'd been offered, a feeling which she shared with them all.

Tina turns her back to the sea, leans against the railing and placing her headphones in her ears. Filter's Take a Picture plays at a reasonable volume from the small Shure earbuds. The song perfectly stated how she felt right now. Tina sings softly along with the lines," Could you wanna take my picture? cause I won't remember. Do you wanna take my picture, Cause I won't remember." She's afraid she's disappearing inside of her new self. Embracing her abilities seem to mean giving up on who she was. She's scared and unsure if she's willing to do that.

Just then, one of the old men hoots and hollers that he's caught a big one. She watches as he, with the help of a young boy who is perhaps his grandson, reels in an unusually large fish for this area of the beach. She smiles as other old men come over to look at the fish and congratulate the old timer, the young boy smiling next to him appreciatively. The song ends and Tina searches for yet another, stopping on Car Park North's Human. She heads back to her bike which she had left parked about a half a block away at the sushi restaurant, singing along with the music. Upon reaching the bike she unlocks her helmet from it's place along the side of the bike and turns off her iPod, tucking it away in the pocket of her riding jacket. Suddenly, as she slips her all black helmet on over her short crop of hair, she gets the feeling again of being watched. Keeping her face shield down, Tina scans the street for anything obvious or out of place. Seeing nothing out of place she shrugs to herself and starts the bike up, letting it idle as as traffic passes. She merges into the traffic, getting between a silver and black camaro.

Paying more attention to the distance she has from the car in front of her she doesn't notice much more when the overwhelming sensation of being watched overcomes her again. She follows the silver Camaro onto a street to the left. Upon reaching a red light she stops to look around for the source of her discomfort. She turns to look behind her when something on the black Camaro's roof catches her eye. A purple insignia of which her studies have made her very aware. The insignia of the Decpticons. Tina feels as if the collar of her jacket gets a bit too tight suddenly as she swallows hard. She tries to not be obvious behind her mask as she turns around. Staring at the red light she sees a swath of purple on the car in front of her out of the lower edge of her vision. She focuses on the purple sploch and sees that it too, is a Decepticon badge. She tries her hardest to slow down her breathing but can't help but feel a wave of panic over come her.

The light is still red but no traffic appears to be coming from either direction. Tina throws caution to the wind and accelerates around the silver Camaro to her front and blows through the still red light. Checking her mirrors, she sees that although the light is still red, both cars are now in persuit of her. Attempting to not panic, she pulls a hard left a little too close to a truck traveling in the opposite lane, on to the highway. She accelerates hard in an attempt to shake both cars. She merges onto the highway and accelerates to an unsafe speed before checking her mirrors again. Much to her dismay, not only are they still trailing her but they are gaining. She accelerates harder, fearing whatever it may be the Decepticon's have in store for her following her defeat of Barricade. Seeing her exit listed as only a few miles away she swerves through cars, trucks and other bikes making her way to the safety that she knows the base will provide.

Following but not gaining, the Camaros seem to hold back a bit as she takes the off ramp for her exit. Blowing through the red light just a wheel too close to a bumper she banks a hard right, both cars still following and cutting off traffic completely as they do so. She blows through light after light until reaching the one just outside the gate to the base. Knowing that blowing this light means facing a loaded weapon that will be aimed at her head, she opts to sit at this light. Calming as two other familiar cars pull up. Tina breathes a sigh of relief at seeing Sideswipe and Sunstreaker pull up to the red light she is sitting at.

Tina laughs lightly to herself as she turns around and sees the two Camaro's approaching slowly and stopping at the red light a block behind them. Tina offers up two fingers, one on each hand at the two as the light before her turns green. She accelerates past Sunny and Sides up to the gate, showing her I.D. which the guard checks diligently. She smiles under her mask as she watches the two Camaro's turn right at the perimeter along the fence line and follow her slowly. She turns left headed towards the hangars which tower over everything else on the base. She's being followed again, It's no longer safe to go outside alone.


	9. The legendary

A/N: I'm bringing back an old favorite in this chapter. I can't continue this story without having a few of my personal cartoon and comic book favorites in it. Here is the introduction, of sorts, or resurrection #1. For more background, I recommend taking a look at the Spotlight series comics from IDW. That'll give you more insight into how some of these characters came to disappear in the first place. Enjoy Tina's clutziness.

Gonzter, thanks for the review complete with idea. :-) I've been thinking about that and it'll take some work but it may just happen. To everyone offering up reviews, thank you very much. I really do appreciate them and as I always say, I'm willing to consider input and ideas. :-)

* * *

Tina doesn't rush into the hangar. She's done with rushing plus, right now, she's under no particular threat. She takes her sweet time walking into the hallway that works as an entry way to the converted structure. As she rounds a corner, she notices that no one, human or transformer alike, seems to be around. 

"Hello?" she calls out. Tina furrows her brow a bit at the lack of response. Walking a bit further down the passageway, she hears what seems to be a slightly heated debate coming from the control and communication room at the end of the hall. Still clad in her leather riding suit, she waits by the door listening to whatever is going on inside. She jumps at the sound of Sunny's voice echoing down the hall. She turns to see he and Sideswipe walking towards the door at which she stands, hesitant to go inside.

"What are you doing?" The yellow mech asks her with an accusatory sound in his voice. She glares up at him, pursing her lips together as the door opens.

It seems that everyone is inside the room discussing something, which she can't see at the center of the room. Tina slinks past Volt, giving him a friendly tap on the leg and smiling up at him as she makes her way to where she can see what's going on. In the center of the room is a rather flustered looking Glenn, an amused looking Maggie, and a concerned looking Ratchet standing beside a studious looking Wheeljack all stand around a rather benign looking Boom box, sort of a relic of the 80's. The object looks pretty worse for wear. She sides up to her step-cousin, tapping him on the arm.

"What's the deal?"

"Deal? Ha." Maggie snorts, both of her arms on her hips and her head shaking back and forth irritatedly. "I'll tell you what the deal is. Your cousin decided he needed a new toy. He's been on an 80's kick for the last week or so. So during our lunch, he goes downtown to look around at the pawnshops. Low and behold, what does he find? Not only a boom box that literally has been sitting around since some point in the 80's. But the only classic boom box capable of eradicating most of the life in this room."

Tina scrunches her nose up at Maggie's explanation and turns to Glenn giving him the same look. The chubby man only shrugs innocently while chewing on his thumbnail. "I didn't know."

Maggie groans out of aggravation, "How could you not know, Glenn? How? It's not as if you've never seen that before." The angered blonde points a well manicured finger at the cassette player door and the purple insignia that adorns it. A question to which, again, Glenn only shrugs.

Tina looks at the ancient stereo sitting on the table and her eyes and mouth open wide in surprise and she brings her hand up to her mouth as she recognizes it. She had spent a good portion of her time, since her return from the hospital, studying the Autobot's history and the Decepticon's profiles. She had made herself aware of the Decepticon officers and underlings who were known to be on Earth and those who were still at large. This particular Decepticon was one of the later. "Wheeljack, is that who I think it is?"

"Yep, sure is. Looks like Soundwave is still functioning." The white mech's light bars on the side of his face light up as he chuckles at Soundwave's unfortunate condition. "Somewhat."

"Still functioning?" She's a bit confused now.

"He still plays tapes and radio." Glenn mumbles from behind the hand which is covering his face.

"Heh, really?" She snorts, steps forward and examines the object, careful not to touch him. "Can he transform?"

"Apparently not. It seems he's trapped in his alt mode." Wheeljack looks over to Ratchet, who is scanning Soundwave and nods in agreement, though not looking up from his readouts.

"Maybe so but he seems slightly aware of his surroundings and is not too happy right now." Enigma steps forward, a demonic cast on her silver face. The femme is silent as she stares at the boom box, her optics flashing to dark red and her lip components curling up into an evil grin. Ratchet gently grabs her arm and pulls her back talking quietly in electronic bursts into her audio receptor as he does so. The stern look on the CMO's face calms her and she nods at whatever he has said to her. Ratchet lets go of her arm and she turns around, walking out of the room without saying another word.

Tina watches curiously as the tall black femme gracefully exits the room, the curious girl then turns back to the table. "So what now? I mean, if he's aware we can't just leave him here. Right?"

"As long as he's like this, he's of no harm to us. He doesn't have the cassettes to work for him. He'll go into a locked down storage area." Ratchet takes a closer look at the blue boombox, checking the damage to the outside of his alt mode. "Well, it seems his regenerative process is damaged as well. But I'm sure at some point, he'll come in handy. In the meantime, Dr. Tanaka is here. He's in my office. If you are finished with your work today, I think you should get started with the doctor."

Understanding a dismissal when she hears one she nods obediently then raises a finger to ask one more question. "Okay, but one last thing. If he's aware of what is going on. I mean, even vaguely, what's to say he hasn't somehow contacted the Decepticons." She walks forward raising a hand to the blue an silver stereo but still looking to Ratchet for approval. "I can put him out for a while if you like. There's just no telling how long it'll last."

"No. That won't be necessary. In the past, he wasn't one of the most favored amongst the Decepticons. They haven't found him with all the time that has passed, I doubt they'll come looking for him now." Ratchet tells her, motioning for her to lower her hand.

Tina gives him a thumbs up and turns to leave, walking smack dab into Volt's leg. Falling down with a graceless thud, she groans and rubs her forehead. "Oh, Tina. I'm sorry." Volt leans down to help the girl stand back up. "Did you go out on your bike alone?"

She grabs his hand and gets back on her feet, rubbing her butt where she landed hard on it. "Yes. It was a bad idea that I won't be repeating."

"Why's that?"

"I got followed by two Camaro's a sliver one and a black one."

Overhearing the conversation, Arcee comes over and joins the two. "They're names are Runabout and Runamuck. They didn't try to hurt you did they?"

"No but they followed me like police on a high speed chase. Damn they're fast."

"Yes they are. Too fast. They have a reputation for destruction. We noticed them before but didn't mention it because you _usually_ don't run off on solitary jaunts." Volt suddenly seems so serious. "Tina, I know you like your independence, but please don't go out like that without one of us. Right now, it's just not safe for you."

Tina looks at her feet as she tugs at the restrictive collar of her jacket. It isn't safe. She knows that and Volt is right, she does love her independence but the next time she sneaks out could be her last. She nods at his request and pats his leg as she walks passed him to go find Dr. Tanaka. Wheeljack follows with Soundwave in hand.

* * *

"Tohiro!" Tina gives the doctor a welcoming hug practically tackling him to the ground. "So are you in shock yet?" 

The doctor takes off his glasses, pulls a cloth from his pocket and cleans them, silently smiling as he does so. As he puts his now clean glasses back on and readjusts them, he offers his former student a slight smile as he responds, "Tina, I've learned that there are way too many mysteries in the universe to be shocked. Aliens? No. Giant robot aliens? Well, I was surprised but not shocked."

Tina laughs at his answer to her question as she walks over to the corner of the room and places her backpack down in a human sized chair. Carefully removing her jacket She winces slightly at the slight pain she feels in her arm.

"Still healing rather fast I see." Doctor Tanaka watches her every move very carefully.

"Meh, I wouldn't say too quickly. It's getting better though."

He smiles at her as Ratchet and Wheeljack enter the room speaking in electronic bursts of Cybertronian. Wheeljack places Soundwave on top of the exam table. Tina feeling curious as always hops up onto the table and eyeballs the boom box with a child like wonder in her eyes.

"Tina, don't touch." Ratchet says from his workstation, sounding like a parent to the girl. Tina frowns at him and rolls her eyes. "And quit rolling your eyes behind my back." She giggles and holds a finger over Soundwave, taunting the CMO. Wheeljack lets loose a small chuckle which makes Ratchet to turn around so fast, he startles Tina causing her to fall back and bump the boombox with her knee. In that moment in which she bumps Soundwave, the boom box lets out a quick burst of sound at a volume so loud she grabs her ears.

Almost as soon as it happens, the sound stops and again, the boom box returns to being a rather benign looking piece of electronics on the table. Acting at lightning fast speed Tina leans over close to the machine, gritting her teeth and twisting her face up, says quietly enough for all electronic "ears" in the room to hear, "One more outburst like that and I'll ensure that every working circuit in you is fused to your casing. Painfully. Got it?"

Wheeljack and Ratchet stand back in surprise at Tina's sudden and startling behavior. The still leather clad girl sits back and looks around in surprise at her own quiet outburst before turning red and climbing down from the table to stand beside the Doctor who is giving her a surprised look as well.

Doctor Tanaka places a kind and reassuring hand on her shoulder, squeezing lightly he whispers to her, "I see you've finally embraced it. Don't let it take control, Tina."

She looks up at him, both of her green eyes looking like the scared eyes of a child who just saw Bloody Mary in the bathroom mirror.

Ratchet runs a scan over Tina and frowns at what he sees, causing him to call the doctor over. Wheeljack walks over to Tina and bends down to be closer to her. "Are you okay? Something has been wrong since you arrived."

She inhales deeply and runs her hand through her short brown curls. "I'm fine. I, I" Feeling his stare upon her as he waits patiently for a response. "I'm fine. Really. I am."

She walks over the the table and climbs up to sit again, ignoring the silent stereo to her left. Ratchet and the Doctor talk about something she cannot hear in the corner while she recounts her run in with the two Camaros earlier to Wheeljack. He listens intently and barely notices that Ratchet and Doctor Tanaka have stopped talking and are now both at the table. Tina does notice and stops mid sentence, giving the two expectant looks.

"Hmm,Tina," Tohiro starts off already sounding like a doctor with bad news. "It seems there may be a problem."

"Like?" She furrows her well shaped brows at the older man.

"Well your healing rate has increased and thats a good thing. But your conscious abilities to control whats happening to you have decreased. Not good. Your processors are working fine but your process rate has almost quadrupled since the last tests were run on you back at the hospital." He hands her two pages, one of her last physical and a copy of a scan that Ratchet had just run on her. She reads over them carefully. Ratchet's read out has been translated to common English, for which she is relieved. "Tina, the processors where implanted to help you control yourself. Maintain a buffer... Your emotional outbursts cause an energy surge that isn't only internal as we all know. You're becoming a danger to not only yourself, but every piece of machinery around you. We need to get you started on control exorcises less you become a sort of weapon of mass destruction to all electronics."

Tina laughs at him. He frowns back at her and she stops, mulling over her actions,"I'm sorry. It just sounds funny when you put it like that."

"It's not funny, Tina, it's real. Ratchet has been keeping a record of scans on you. Your daily energy output, well, insane I think is how you would refer to it. It's insane. And I'm starting to not understand it anymore. Your being taken over by your own abilities. If you don't learn how to harness them, there's no telling what you could manage if you lost control of yourself." He places his hands in his pockets as if giving a symbolic end to his part of the conversation. "I for one, do not want to experience the dark ages."

"You can do it, Tina. You just have to stop fearing yourself." Ratchet says with an almost fatherly sound to his voice again.

She understands their point. There's no turning back. No denying what has happened and what is still happening to her. Inside of her. She shakes her head but climbs down from the table. She raises her head and says as serious as she can, "So what's first?"

* * *

Everyday after work, it's the same thing. Practicing. She controls objects, scrambles electronic signals, absorbs eletrical energy around her, gives the energy where needed, redirects it and uses it as a weapon. Drawing eletrical energy from the environment around her, she's realized that the larger the source, the larger the boom she can create. 

Plasma is the most entertaining.

Standing at the end of the flight line, approximately 1,000 yards from the rusting heap of a mock helicopter that was once used for fire training back in the air base's past, Tina stands with facing the 9,000 foot runway before her. Her back turned to the small crowd behind her, she looks up into the rare and unsettling stormy sky. She has spent years purposefully avoiding situations like this; hiding inside at the first flash of light or rumble in the sky. Southern California doesn't get too many thunderstorms so she usually feels safe. Today's weather report offered news that she new meant she would be going where she hated, literally out into the storm. As each peel of thunder rumbles through the air she shakes, knowing what is soon coming. A streak of lightning crosses the sky above and shes looked up, discomfort contorting her pretty face into that of a mask of fear. _Number four_, she thinks to herself. _All in the name of science. Again_.

No one, man or machine, dares stand near her right now. They all watch, grounded and protected at a safe distance from where she stands. Tina raises one hand up to the sky and turns her face to watch the storm above her. The lightning drawls near and her breathing intensifies. She feels every hair on her body stand upright, knowing what comes next she closes her eyes. The air around her crackles and snaps with electrified life. She goes deaf as the superheated air around her expands out and she feels the searing heat spread down her body. Holding both hands out in front of her she feels the strike lessen and fade but the energy it deposited rolling between her out stretched palms. She opens her eyes to the blinding and crackling blue ball of light between them. She inhales deeply and with every bit of might in her body throws the ball forwards as if she was passing it to a teammate in a game of basketball. A chorus of gasps comes from behind her as the ball speeds up, comes into contact with the old mock copter and explodes against the metal hulk, moving it backwards and throwing thousands of tiny flying fragments of metal skyward. Each individual piece seems to skitter across the concrete surface, sparks jumping from it's broken and ragged edges.

She turns to face the silence behind, hearing everything as muffled, partially blinded by the light, she sees Doctor Tanaka rushing over to check on her. "Come on. Let's go back inside." Once inside the door, Ratchet runs yet another one of his hundred or so, or so it seems daily, scans on her. The tall yellow mech shakes his head in disbelief.

"Without proper shielding, that amount of energy sustained in that strike could take one of us offline for a few solar cycles. Amazing."

"Yep, I'm just one small step for mankind." She chuckles as she and the doctor walk down the hall, behind Ratchet and Wheeljack, to Wheeljack's lab where she has been doing most of her "training" lately." The lab is usually in a state of disarray with completed, incomplete, and just plain not working projects laying about all over the place with no true organization in mind. Tina makes her way to the freezer in the back where she stashed some Propels earlier that afternoon. She has a weird thing for frozen water and smiles like a little kid with candy upon finding a suitable bottle of half frozen mixed berry flavored water.

Tina tries desperately to get some of the unfrozen water out of the bottle without wearing any ice as she follows Wheeljack to the room where he keeps his more volatile projects under a safe lock and key. She walks behind him as he enters the large, not exactly well lit, room and because she is working so diligently at getting some water out, she doesn't pay attention to where she steps, tripping over a stray hose from an object on the floor. She tries to regain her balance and catch herself but she fails to do so, falling forward into a shelf and knocking her head on an object placed on a shelf, just below head level to her. The residual effect of the lightning strike makes itself known as her forehead comes into contact with the object, a bright flash lights up the room and a crackling sound echoes out of the door. She twists as she falls, landing on her back and staring up just as Soundwave's Boom box form teeters on the edge of the shelf and falls down towards her. A swear escapes her lips as she reaches out and catches the heavy stereo with a grunted "Humph."

No sooner does she sigh out of relief, than does the boom box begin to shudder violently. Tina drops the shaking box and kicks it away from her. It slides across the floor and out of the room, still shaking and shuddering. She rises up on all fours watching it alarmed but intently, as lines and gaps that weren't there a moment before, begin to appear. Having now seen so many transformations before she knows that's what is in the process of occurring in front of her.

"Ratchet, Wheeljack! Crap!" She gets up on her knees and raises both hands in the air. "It was an accident." She hurries out of the room and puts distance between she and the morphing stereo. To further confuse her, the shifting form appears to grow in size. How? She does not know. All she does know is that from what she had studied before, this Soundwave character is not a cool one. Not to be trusted. Has a special contempt for carbon life forms and an intense hatred of all things Autobot and she just set him free from a 2 decade long confinement. He's going to be pissy.

Ratchet and Wheeljack both stare in stunned silence watching Soundwave takes his regular form directly in front of them. The doors to the med bay open as Jazz, Bumble bee and Bluestreak rush in. All five raise their weapons at the newly freed Decepticon in front of them and Tina gets up onto her feet, stepping back from the faceless mech standing over her. Before she has a chance to hold out a hand to protect herself she feels the worst migraine in her life take over her, forcing her onto her knees. She grabs her head, cries out in pain, turns and runs to hide behind the Autobots.

Just as her headache couldn't get any worse, a terrible ear splitting sound tears through the room causing the Autobot's to bend over in pain as well. Through her squinting eyes she sees Soundwave walk out of the room, coolly as if nothing was happening. She clutches her head and follows him out of the building and onto the tarmac out side. Behind her she can hear the sound of heavy metallic feet making their way outside as well, she stands aside as every Autobot in on the base follows them on to the tarmac. Soundwave turns and takes aim at them all, firing the gun in his hand just as a shot from Bumblebee's cannon strikes him. Soundwave's shot strikes the wall of the hanger above them, causing pieces of cement and stucco to rain down.

Time slows down while the panic takes over. Being in the middle of a fire fight probably isn't the best place for her to be standing. She hurries to a spot behind a cement barrier, praying that it gives her the cover she needs as the beginning shots of WWIII seem to break out above her head. What did she do? Tina mentally chastises herself for her clumsiness. She peeks over the edge of the barrier watching the Autobots well aimed shots that hit their target but not well enough to take the faceless mech down. For being out of practice for a while, Soundwave seems to be doing quite well with his aim. Bluestreak lowers his gun at Soundwave and takes a single shot that knocks the over sized walking stereo down to the ground. A few seconds pass and Tina stands up to get a better view but is startled by a quick burst of the ear splitting sound again, making her ears feel as if they're about to bleed. A sound, she notices, that is coming from the odd contraption mounted to, a now sitting upright Soundwave's right shoulder.

To the south of where she and the Autobots stand, a resounding "VWOMP!" echoes through the sky as a black and purple F22 Raptor appears out of thin air. Tina watches as if she were watching a live action movie take place in front of her. Soundwave rises up from where he had fallen and runs towards the approaching aircraft. He leaps, transforming in the mid air, and lands with dancer's grace into the open bomb bay of the black Raptor. No sooner do the bomb bay doors close than another "VWOMP!" pounds the air into submission and the Raptor, with Soundwave inside, disappears as if the Bermuda Triangle had swallowed them both whole.

Tina turns around hurries back to where everyone stands, shouting, "What the _hell _was that?"

"That," Ratchet says as if every last bit of energy had been leached from him, "was why I told you not to touch the boom box."

"It was an accident." She pleads, looking down at the ground embarrassed.

"I know, Tina."The medic adds," But now our troubles just grew. Soundwave is back. It's only a matter of time until he's up to some sort of screw ball plan." Ratchet turns and walks back inside. Jazz walks over to a frowning Tina and bends down, giving her a pat on the back.

"It's my fault, Jazz." her face looks every bit as pained as her voice.

"It would have happened sooner or later whether or not you were involved." the white and blue mech says soothingly to her. "Guess it was just a little bit sooner than we expected, T."

"Thanks," She says half heartedly, "So that black jet, that was Skywarp huh?"

"Yep." He stands up and stares into the area of the sky where the plane had disappeared only a moment before. "Nice trick, eh?"

"Yeah. A little too convenient, though." She stares back at the spot in the sky where the jet had disappeared to.

"Yep. Obviously, he had managed some sort of communication with the Decepticons. Meaning, they know more about you than we'd want them too."

"Great. Lovely. My days just get better and better anymore." She snorts as she follow's Jazz and his classic paint job back inside.

* * *

It's late and Tina is done mulling over the days events. Volt walks into the rec room where again, she lays on her favorite couch in a near comatose state. 

"I heard about your little adventure." he says leaning down closer to the couch.

Tina lays on her back with her arm covering her eyes. Her voice sounds gravely as she answers him, "I'm a clutz."

"No. You're human. You're not perfect. None of us are. It was a mistake." He says reassuringly.

Tina lowers her arm from her face, her eyes blood shot and tired looking. "Do you know how weird that sounds coming from you?"

"Yep. Pretty damned odd I can imagine."

"To say the least. Is it time to go?" She sits up, gathering her sweatshirt and pushing it into her black backpack.

"Yep. And I have good news. Well, sort of." He stands up and rests his hands on the armor on his hips.

"Really? All the Decepticon's got a virus and croaked?" She smiles weakly from the couch.

"Not quite. Even if that would be nice. There's going to be a few new arrivals tomorrow and we get to go."

"Really? How cool. Who?" She had heard so many stories from the Autobots and read so many profiles in their database, she felt as if she knew half of the missing members of their team already.

"Don't know. We'll find out tomorrow."

"Wicked. Can't wait. I'm beat. Are you beat? Lets get outta here." She stands up and reaches up for his hand, "dragging" him out of the door.

Volt barely makes it to the gate of the base before Tina is snoring softly in the passenger seat.


	10. Landing party and a rude awakening

A/N: Uh oh.

* * *

Desert. Miles of it, stretch on for what seems an eternity as Tina stares out of the window of the Si. Doctor Tanaka and she have been catching up and discussing her progress for the last 2 hours of their trip. Volt has been silent for the most part, only speaking up as certain parts of the humans' conversation catches his interest. They have about an hour to go at this speed before they're where the supposed landing is going to happen. 

One of the nicest things about having an technologically superior alien as a car is that said vehicle comes with features that surpass any known technology on Earth. Things such as radar jammers that are undetectable to civilian police vehicles and GPS that will not get you lost off of a road or in the middle of the desert. If you need to absolutely, positively, find your way out in the middle of complete nothingness, then Cybertronian navigation is the way to go. It makes Garmin and TomTom look like Atari.

They're out in the middle of nowhere right now. On a dirt road that a normal Civic Si would not be able to transverse so effortlessly without having a lift kit that made it look like a baby Big Foot. This Si though, comes complete with an off road feature to rival that of any SUV on the road at the time. Both Tina and Doctor Tanaka laugh at the idea of how funny they would look to anyone who could see them. That is_ if _any life other than desert critters was around.

She doesn't know how much time has gone by since the last time she checked the time but it feels like forever. Time flies when your catching up.

"Volt, people die out here from lack of water and food." Tina's voice sounds almost as thirsty as the people she mentions.

"And?" comes the mech's voice from the stereo speakers.

"We are no where."

"Tina, weren't you the one who told me some of the best parties happen out in the desert, miles from civilization?" his curious yet humored voice says antagonistically to her.

She turns red and looks down as Doctor Tanaka gives her a curious yet disapproving look and adds a "tsk, tsk." and a shaking head for added dramatic effect.

Giving the doctor an pleading look and pouting just a bit she exclaims,"Post college, Doc. Post college. Volt, stop selling me out." She slaps the steering wheel playfully to reprimand him. "Can we stop for a moment?"

She can almost feel the vehicles internal optic sensors on her. "You just said people die out here..." Volt adds, still egging her on.

Tina turns to her left and sees the Doctor giving her the same odd look that she's sure Volt is right now. "Both of you stop staring at me. I have to... do something."

"Women" is the only response from the stereo as the car comes to a dusty stop and Doctor Tanaka laughs in response. Tina shakes her head at the goofy comment coming from Volt as she climbs out of the car. Coughing the dust away, she runs to an outcropping of rocks a few yards away from the car. Hiding behind the cover of the rocks, she can hear the sounds of the "men" talking behind her. She finishes her business and notices the serene silence of the hillside. It almost seems more surreal instead of serene. A thought in the back of her head says," the quiet before the storm" while a chill runs down her spine. She looks around and sees nothing but the burnt reddish brown hue of the rocks and cliffs around her mixed with the greenish grey cacti and desert grasses. A hissing rattle comes from a shadow not too far from where she stands causing her to move with haste back to the car.

Doctor Tanaka notices the haste in which she comes back and asks as calmly as possible, "Tina is everything okay. You look like you saw a ghost?"

"Yes," She relaxes a bit and smiles nervously, running her hands over her shirt and pants to flatten any wrinkles, "I'm fine. There was a rattle snake up there somewhere. Just freaked me out a bit." Tina lowers herself back down into the driver's seat and leans her head back into the head rest, calming herself for the last leg of their trip. "Thanks for stopping, Volt."

"No problem." is the response as he revs his engine a bit on take off. "So Tohiro, tell me about your discoveries a bit more. The remainder of the trip, she listens intently while the doctor describes his discoveries and studies of the last few years, focusing mostly on what will effect Tina both good and bad.

* * *

The silence returns. Tina stands alone on the edge of a dry lake bed staring out at the beautiful landscape before her as it seems to catch fire in the reddish light of the setting sun. In the distance, some cumulus clouds build in the early evening heat. The variance of colors from the dark blue of the approaching evening sky, to the golden yellow light cast on the towering gray clouds, to the fiery red of the mountain face, her eyes take in the beauty before her with a heart calming ease. She loves the desert. Not many people can appreciate it's beauty making it feel as if it's an art work made just for her. Having arrived early, before everyone else, she, the doctor and Volt, had a chance to enjoy the scenery in silence.

A lovely silence which is broken by an aggravated voice approaching from behind.

"Rocky terrain does not work well with my current configuration." Sunstreaker complains woefully to no one and everyone at the same time.

"Oh god, Sunny, can it already." Maggie growls at him from a safe distance. "It's like taking a debutant to the rodeo 'my dress is going to get all dirty,'" she teases in a high pitched voice and a bad imitation of a southern American accent. "You're worse than a woman."

"You're no different. I'm not the one who had to go through a cleansing and beautification process that took almost two hours to come sit in the desert. The amount of time you humans take to get ready is absurd. Your clothing barely protects you, why even bother? You're still extremely fragile..."

"I agree! Why bother?" An over excited Sam says from between Mikela and Bumblebee. A comment which warrants a painful elbow in the side from Mikela. "For all women, Mikela. All women. What? Quit looking at me like that. You know I've only got eyes for you" He whines as he wraps his arm around the brunette who is still giving him a death glare. Bumblebee lightens up the moment by playing "You're my one and only girl, ooh wee baby..." from Fats Domino's - I've got eyes for you, gaining smiles from his two human charges.

Sunstreaker continues to complain as Sideswipe adds fuel to the yellow mech's fire by tossing small pebble's at his brother's back. In a flash, Sunny turns and swings at his brother. The two start to scuffle until their antics are stopped by a growling Ratchet, who had just reached their camp.

"Cut it out you too or I'm going to reconfigure you both into twin Dodge Neons." He stares the two Lamborghinis down as they move away from each other. An irritated shove here, an angry comment there. "That's more like it. Anymore of that and you know where you'll be tomorrow." Both he and Wheeljack brandish a cutting tool at the twins. Tina is sure Wheeljack would be smiling, if you could see his mouth.

"Hey, Dodge Neons wouldn't be that bad. Well if they were at least SRT-4s." Sam exclaims.

"Sam. SRT-4 or not, it's _still_ a Neon." Mikela tries to stifle her laughter by holding a hand over her mouth. "How about a Caliber SRT, Ratchet. Those are pretty horrible?"

Tina can't help but laugh at Mikela's ideas. She practically chokes she's laughing so hard."Mikela, stop. My sides hurt."

Mikela's eyes light up as she continues on, "You know what I'm talking about, Tina. They're hideous. They look like a Dodge Avenger mated with a Jeep Commander and the resulting offspring ran headfirst into a wall upon birth. You can put rocket packs on a C130, that still doesn't make it a fighter jet."

"Girl, you are nuts." Tina laughs through her tears. Sunny huffs at the human's who are laughing on his behalf and Sideswipe busies himself with something on his wrist. Ratchet just "eyeballs" them closely.

The sun sets as the last bits of blue in the sky retreat behind it to light up other rarely seen corners of the world. The stars that appear above cause every human eye and every Cybertronian Optic to turn skyward in silence for a few minutes. A meteorite crosses the sky in a blue streak, as the time ticks on, more follow.

"Hey, check it out, a Blue Streak." Tina says cheerfully while flashing Blue Streak a toothy grin.

"Goofy." is the blue mech's response as he continues to stare upward, silently enjoying the display above them all.

"Using the Leonid meteor shower as cover, eh? Good call." Doctor Tanaka says quietly from his seat on the rocks beside Tina and Volt.

"Yes. One lone meteorite falling to Earth isn't a problem. Specially all the way out here," Volt tells the doctor," but multiple meteorites, well, that requires a better cover. The meteor shower provides exactly that." Just then one lone space rock fails to burn up on entry into the atmosphere and it leaves a fiery trail behind it. Like a small fire ball falling from the hand of an angry angel in heaven, it breaks into pieces all falling like a rain of fire before they fizzle out and land uneventfully on a hillside across the dry lake bed.

"That was amazing." Tina whispers from her seat.

"Just wait." Sam responds, the smile on his face lit by the small fire Maggie had made to keep them warm. In the distance, the sounds of engines can be heard approaching, piercing the quiet night air.

"Looks like everyone else is finally here." Wheeljack gets up and walks over to here they can see the other vehicles coming. Tina joins him in watching their approach. Like an army of undercover cars in the night, they arrive with no lights. A mass of dark shapes roaring across the open dry lake plane like an inky ghost coming for the campsite. As the rolling mass gets closer, the silhouettes of each vehicle can barely be made out. Optimus Prime, Jazz, Ironhide, and Arcee. No sooner had all four vehicles come to a stop, then had a dark jet streaked across the night sky, no lights on to be seen but the roar of the engines could be heard.

Tina watches the four Autobots before her transform and rise up into their regular modes, making her feel small and almost toy like again. She smiles up at all four and turns to follow them down to the camp. Above them, the lone jet returns, a black cloud in the night sky. The air around them sounds as if it's tearing itself apart as the jet cuts through it. Tumbling in midair as it transforms, it lands feet first with a muffled "thump" and an unseen cloud of dust rising up around it's feet. The purple optics that glow from within the head of the being look over them all as Enigma steps into the light of the fire. "It's dry. Probably not the best idea to have a fire going." She says flatly.

"Well, it's nice to see you too, E. All alone tonight? What a shame and it's such a romantic setting." Sideswipe taunts her from beside his brother.

"I can drag you behind a hill and end you before you can even scream." The femme says dryly, resting one foot upon a boulder, an elbow upon that and balances a knife between her fingers. Sideswipe doesn't respond with words, he only narrows his optics at her. She smirks at him before turning to the now large gathering around the fire which Maggie is attempting to put out with a bottle of soda. Glenn, who's nap had been cut short by Enigma's noisy arrival, tries to help her by tossing dirt on the flame. "See._They_ know I'm right. Anyway, we're clear. No one around for miles on end. It's too quiet for my liking. I suspect they'll have a landing of their own tonight. No telling. Nice backdrop." She stares skyward at the building rain of light above.

"Thank you, Enigma." Optimus pats the black jet on a massive shoulder. She nods respectfully at him. A move that catches Doctor Tanaka's attention and makes him smile. "Well, any time now, they should be here."

"Still no telling who?" Bluestreak asks innocently.

"Come on, Blue. That's spoil the surprise." Jazz answers him playfully.

Quiet conversations break out here and there as the meteors fall in a more rapid succession. Countless streaks have crossed the sky as one lone streak grows in size, becoming noticeable from the rest. Jazz points it out and they all watch the one shape as it gets closer, obviously not being a regular meteorite. They all stand up as the object lights up the dried mud surface below it before plowing into the dry lake surface at a shallow angle. Everyone rushes over to the oblong object in the dirt, giving it ample room. Tina stares on in amazement as sections of the elongated structure pop out and twist and turn. The dark, metallic egg beings to transform into the most basic of all transformer structures, that of a protoform. Having never seen this before, she looks at the towering being in awe and amazement wondering to herself, _how? If they all come here like this, then where is all the mass? And where on a protoform frame did Ironhide have those massive cannons? _She begins to feel as if she's confusing herself and concentrates on what is going on around her and less on the physics involved. She'll just bug Ratchet and Wheeljack about it later.

The being communicates with the others in the short electronic blast and pulses that are their native language. Only after a short exchange with the others does it seem to pause and almost go into a trance. Only a few seconds pass before the being greets everyone in a distinctive Texas drawl. "Hooey, that was one heck of a ride." he says with a friendly chuckle. "I think I need to change outfits. I feel under dressed."

Optimus puts a hand on the mech's shoulder. "Hound, these are our human friends, Sam and Mikela, Maggie, Glenn, Tina and Tohiro." All six humans wave and add in their hellos to the Silver mech before them.

Hound looks them over one by one, "Sam, you're the one who saved everything and disposed of Megatron, right?" Sam nods sheepishly, trying his best to be modest. Hound gives him a thumbs up, "Good job. I would like to say 'thank you.'" Sam smiles and adds in a nervous, "you're welcome."

Hound looks down at Tina who is standing right at his feet, he almost seems surprised to see her standing there. How peculiar. "Tina, you're the girl with the... abilities. Right?"

"Great. My secret has gone intergalactic." She smiles sarcastically up at him before relaxing to a more laid back grin, "Yes. I am. Pleasure to meet you, Hound. I've heard lots about you."

"The pleasure is all mine." He winks one optic at her. She shakes her head in amazement at his rather charming personality.

"Okay. We're still waiting on 3 more landings. Time to sit back and wait some more." Optimus adds as Hound makes his way over to Jazz. Jazz explains that they'll need to find a major highway and it's quite a hike. The two leave so that Hound can scan a vehicle for his Earth camouflage and alt mode.

Time seems like forever as the night seems to slow down. Even the hands on her watch seem to tick slower. Tina intently listens and joins in to the conversations that occur around her, flowing with everything around her as a movement in the sky catches her attention. Not one or even two but three burning masses travel through the sky like a light rain of stars from the heavens. Everyone stands up watching these, the last of their visitors finally make bumpy touch downs also in the hard mud and salt surface of the dry lake bed giving away to a cloudy haze that can barely be seen in the dim night light.

A cold wave crosses over her as everyone gets up to great their three newest visitors. A distant cry, something that just isn't right. Shaking off this feeling as just another odd anomaly in her strange life, she slowly rises up from the rock upon which she sits and joins the others in greeting the newest Autobot arrivals to Earth. Tina stares on calmly watching everything around her when Volt catches her attention.

"Are you all right, Teen?" He asks, concerned about the far away expression on her face, a contemplative look that has been getting all too common on Tina's usually joyful visage.

"Yeah," She laughs nervously," I'm fine. So who's here?" Shaking off the odd feeling, she approaches the three robots. Protoforms, being the most basic of a Cybertronian Robot's design, have no distinctive characteristics. No colors to differentiate them from one another, only voices can separate who they are. Volt introduces them to Tina as Prowl, Mirage and Hot Rod.

Tina had heard loads about all three. She tried her hardest not to laugh at the responses she saw occurring on the twins and Bumblebee's faces behind Prowl as he is introduced. Prowl has a reputation for being the kill joy of the Autobots. Overly militaristic in his style, he tends to be nearly incapable of thinking outside of what training he has. What he lacks in imagination he makes up for in courage to do what he believes is the only course of action. Respected but loathed, he can be a most formidable enemy even amongst his allies.

From what she's learned of Hot Rod, he's no different than most of the guys her age that she knows. Daring, often careless and overly brave, he'll find himself knee deep in trouble before he knows it, but somehow, the mech always manages to find a way out with barely a scratch.

Mirage, well, he's the reluctant hero. He's been accused of everything from being a Decepticon sympathizer to a spy. Really, all he is is the Cybertronian equivalent to an Heir in war. Imagine Paris Hilton suddenly having to join the Army to save her inheritance. Yes, that is Mirage. Well, with a brain at least.

The newest arrivals leave with companions to help them find a suitable camouflage for Earth. Tina finds herself in a fog, mental fog that is, sitting around the burnt out remains of the tiny fire that had been lit earlier. She, Volt and Doctor Tanaka, Enigma, Ironhide, and Bumblebee with Sam and Mikela. A motley crew of sorts. Tina leans back, pressing her heels into the dirt and her back against the smooth rock upon which she leans. Staring up at the stars, she can't shake that "something isn't right" feeling. She feels gazes upon her. Looking up she sees both Enigma and Volt are both intently studying her.

"What? You're freaking me out stop." She mumbles into her arms which she has crossed over her knees.

"Something isn't right." Volt says, one optic ridge raised in concern. Enigma does not respond but continues to study Tina.

"I'm fine." Tina answers Volt, patting him on the leg. She watches the conversation between Ironhide, Bumblebee and Sam with partial interest. She doesn't hear a word she only sees their mouths moving but retains nothing.

"Something just_ isn't _right tonight. It only seems calm. The calm before the storm." Comes a barely audible whisper from above her.

Looking up, Tina sees Enigma staring off into nothing as if listening to whispers on the wind. The black Seeker seems detached from what is going on around her as she stands up and begins to walk away. She stops, mid stride and turns to the small gathering where she had previously sat. "Look, I have to go. I'll see you all back at the base." No one can offer up argument as the shadowy figure disappears into the darkness of night. The only sign that she had gone was the whining sound of her engines starting up, the cacophony of sound and the blinding blueish purple light that erupted from them as she took off into the sky.

Volt and Tina both watched the twin flames of Enigma's afterburners fade away until they blended into the starry backdrop of the night sky. Volt was the first to break the silence, "So, we're gonna stay back to watch the rest of the meteor shower?" Tina's lips curled up into a small smile where she sat. Tossing a small blue glow stick from hand to hand, the blue shadow dancing about her face, she looked even more lost now than she did a few moments prior.

Ironhide and Bumbleebee transform, preparing to leave. Volt remains in his regular mode, Tina staying close to him as they and Doctor Tanaka wave good bye to their friends, promising to see them later that day.

The two humans and one robot, stayed out on the rocky outcropping by the dry lake bed until the sun rose over the desert. Finally leaving when the rich red and yellow tones of morning faded from dawn to daylight. Tina hadn't been very talkative. To make up for her lack of speaking, Volt responded by just playing music from her iPod, the relaxing mix that she loved so much.

* * *

They had been driving for almost an hour when they realized that they weren't alone. Tina heard nothing but saw everything as if time had slowed down and played out in a shimmering slow motion dream.

The two Camaro's she had come to know as Runabout and Runamuck pulling up beside Volt, Barricade bringing up the rear boxing him in. Faster than the original engineers intended or not, there was no way Volt would be able to outrun the three. The final thing, the one thing that finally brought alarm to her wasn't any of the three cars on either side of them out on on that lonesome stretch of highway early in the morning. It was the sound of the two objects that appeared in mid air, a few miles ahead of them and closing fast.

Her heart leapt into her throat, she lost her breath and her pulse quickened to a pace that shouldn't be possible for any human to survive. That distinctive "VWOMP!" of the air expanding and contracting all at once around the two jets as Skywarp performed yet another spatial warp. Those unrecognizable colors of he and Starscream overhead as the two jets passed low and fast. Tina hung her head and sighed as she looked over to Doctor Tanaka who's face showed both fear and amazement.

"Volt," he felt the surge as she pressed one finger against the visible blue paint along his window. "This is it, buddy. Better call someone. They've got us."

Something transpired between Volt and the Decepticons that she couldn't hear. Prepared for the Battlechargers to do what they do best, beat the daylights out of their enemy, she was shocked to see that instead they guided Volt to an area away from the road and behind a hillside, safe from prying human eyes. It was here that Tina turned to the Doctor and finally told him what to do, "Stay close to Volt."

"W-what are you going to do?" He asked in a mixture of fear and amazement.

"I don't know. Fight? I'll see what happens." She says almost reluctantly as she and the doctor climb out of Volt and stood beside the Si as he transformed beside her. "Volt, I'm sorry I wanted to stay and see the rest of the meteor shower." She looks up at him, smiling a sad but honest smile which he returns.

"No worries, Tina. It was worth it."

A small smile crosses her face as Skywarp and Starscream land directly ahead of them. The strangest sight she sees immediately is Skywarp's Cockpit ejecting the blue boom box she knows is Soundwave who transforms mid air and grows to his normal size, joining the two Decepticon Officers at the lead. Soundwave presses the button on his shoulder ejecting an even smaller, man sized, red robot. From behind them another sound alerts her, the chattering of Frenzy. Tina and Volt both look around sizing up their odds. Completely not good. Eight on one. Well, seven considering that Frenzy and Rumble combined do not equal the size of a full mech.

A strange and grating cackle catches Tina's attention, forcing her to turn around to the front again. "Finally got you." The twisted smirk that graces the end of that sentence causes Tina's eyes to narrow in annoyance. Always the self assured one, Starscream is indeed an asshole.

"Yeah, I see. Eight on three. Two of whom are human. Nice odds, so typical of you, Starscream." Volt adds sourly from beside Tina. Preparing to fight, she cracks her knuckles and neck very ungracefully.

Still smirking and standing with that air of self importance about him for which he is so well known, Starscream waves off Volts comments as if they buzzed about him like a bothersome mosquito, responding with a sour, "Yes, but they're odds that work." Pointing one of his guns at Volt, the colorful mech motions to the others expectantly, "What are you waiting for?" That is when all hell seemed to break loose for Tina. Rumble stepped forward, as does Barricade causing Volt to strike out at the black and white mech. Tina uses this moment as her cue to duck and run, heading for a cave that she prays is only large enough for humans. She shouts hastily at the Doctor to follow while she clamors up the crumbling and debris strewn rock surface of the hill.

Surprisingly faster on the rocks, Tina guesses it's the flexible abilities of being a human that allow her to get to safety before the small, but still larger than her, Rumble has a chance to catch her. She hurries as far back into the cave as she can get, only to realize that once inside, the cave is in fact larger than she had originally thought. She growls in frustration, banging the palm of her hand against red colored rock wall. The sound of something larger than her approaching.

_Damn it. Finally caught. _


	11. Starscream's New Pet

A/N:

It's not a good day for Tina, Volt and Dr. Tanaka. Life just took a nasty turn.

* * *

Tina has no where to go to in the cave.

Dead end.

She turns her back to the wall and faces the entrance as Rumble reaches the mouth of the cave. She walks backward until her back strikes the wall and sits down curling into a little ball hoping this simple act, as childish as it seems, will at least make it as hard as hell for him to get her. It's of no use, as two strong hands put her in enough pain that she breaks her protective posture and cries out. He pretty much yanks her up to a standing position as he pulls her out of the corner. All the red mech does while he practically tosses her around is let out a small evil and annoying little laugh.

Rumble shoves Tina forward, out of the protection of the cave entrance and down to where the others await. Rolling her eyes and cursing under her breath, she stops dead in one last act of defiance. The small mech shakes his head in disgust at the silly human's actions and grabs her left arm with a wrestlers grip. Tina cries out from the pain, straining against his grip, stops walking and digs her heels into the dirt and gravel, an act that is promptly met with her being dragged down the hill kicking and yelling through the rocks and scrub brush. What the small red mech doesn't see while he smiles at his ingenuity of catching the troublesome human, is her small hand covered in minuscule sparks of energy come slamming down on his arm. It isn't until he falls down into a convulsive fit that he realizes what is happening.

Tina watches the red mech, who isn't much bigger than her fall into a shaking and convulsing lump on the ground. She smiles at what happens before her, raising her closed fist into the air and brining it down in triumph, she lets out a small, "Yes!" and breaks to run away. Her escape is interrupted by a smirking Starscream towering over her with one of his null rays pointed directly and quite menacingly, at her. Upon seeing this sight, she can only let out one word, "Damn" as she comes to a skidding halt on the loose desert pavement below her puma clad feet.

"Damn indeed, human." Starscream snickers at her.

"Starscream, I thought we aren't going to kill her." Barricade comments from behind the Seeker, holding onto the frightened looking Doctor with a strong vice like grip.

"Oh, I'm not." Starscream says in feigned innocence.

Tina tries backing up but is stopped as her back strikes a solid object behind her that she doesn't remember being there before. Looking up she sees the faceless visage of Soundwave above her, staring down at her without a single emotion through his two face shields.

Starscream smirks at the worried expression on the female human's face while the cold reality that she is going nowhere kicks in. In one last act of desperation, Tina reaches back and tries to send a wave of incapacitating energy into Soundwave's leg. But to her dismay, sparks and streamers of electric energy bounce off as if deflected by a body hugging energy field around the blue mech. Shock and curiosity registers on her face where before there was only worry. Her head drops solemnly as she tries to think of another escape plan.

"It's useless, human." Starscream laughs at her, enjoying the look of defeat that crosses her face. He leans back in surprise as she takes a step forward, towards him. Not fazed a bit he continues to smirk and snicker at her.

"Starscream..." Barricade warns from beside them all, the doctor still from shock in the black and white mech's hands.

"I'm not worried. I managed to find the one human that null rays work on." He says, looking over towards Barricade.

Tina stops dead in her tracks and considers what he had just said for a moment. Looking up at the muzzle of the towering mech's null ray guns, she thinks about all that she knows of him,all that he is capable of, her physiology and she surmises that the damned Decepticon is right. Pretty painful, a few of the Autobots had told her. How painful, she doesn't really know. They're concept of pain may be incredibly higher than what a human may consider and she isn't ready to find out just what the difference in tolerance may be. She lowers her hands beside her and stares up with nothing but absolute contempt in her green eyes.

"See, Barricade? She knows. I guess the humans are a bit more intelligent than we originally thought."

"Asshole," Tina hisses from exactly between he and Soundwave. "One of these days, you're going to find out exactly how intelligent we are or at least me you, son of bitch."

"Words I'm sure would sting, if only I cared. She comes with us now."

* * *

Volt stands still between the grip of Runamuck and Runabout, careful not to make a move until he knows that the two are well distracted. He silently chastises himself for staying behind. For not leaving when the others did. It was stupid. Tina, the Doctor and he had fun but now look what had happened. He's alone, seriously out manned, in the middle of the desert with Tina and Doctor Tanaka's lives at stake. One Decepticon he can handle, two is pushing it, but here they are now, he and two humans, stuck in some remote desert pass with the threat of eight Decepticons in front of them. Five of those 'Cons being some of the more powerful, violent and dangerous of their like. 

He watches the dialog between the ever vain and boastful Starscream and a scared but still rebellious Tina before him. He can't help but be impressed at the courage that Tina is exhibiting. How many humans would cry and cower at the possibility of meeting fate at the hands of a seriously demented tyrant like Starscream or the cold, sinister nature of Soundwave? Skywarps biggest threat is his spatial warps; the Battlechargers, their lust for destruction; and Rumble and Frenzy well, they just do what their told to avoid becoming recycled scrap metal. Right now, she stands surrounded by all of them. He can see the fear on her but he can also see a defiant glimmer in her eye and knows that more than likely she's already plotting a way to distract them. Volt watches in awe as Tina continues to verbally stand up to Starscream, a mech who is literally 4 times her size.

"Frenzy, give our guest something to relax her a bit." Starscream says without turning, his distrustful gaze still aimed at the small human before him. Tina jerks her head to the right, watching the little silver mech, who only reaches her ribs approach with what appears to be a liquid filled syringe in his hand. Tina steps forward, as threatening as she can towards Starscream, a twisted and evil grimace crossing her usually happy face. Feeling the Battlecharger's grips lessen just enough, Volt breaks free and lunges forward to block Frenzy from Tina and to hopefully knock her out of the way.

What happens next neither he nor Tina expected. The last thing he sees is Tina reach out towards Starscream as the Decepticon lowers his null ray at her. Volt knocks Frenzy aside and the small metallic 'con lets out a chattering shriek, breaking Tina's concentration as she turns violently to the right. Her outstretched hand meets his armor instead of Starscream's, who she had intended the hit for. Searing pain travels through his frame at a lightning fast speed as he falls into a lump on to the rocky desert floor, shaking from the strike. The last thing he hears before his systems overload is a pained, "Nooooooooo!" from Tina and that wicked laughter of Starscream's.

* * *

"No. No. No. NO." Tina looks at her hands in disbelief. Through the parted fingers covering her face, fingers that had just tried to defend the Doctor, Volt and her only a moment ago, upon which the typical lines and swirls of design, were traces of wrong doing. She didn't intend for it to happen. He stepped to close, she instinctively swug her hand to keep him out, not injure him. An accidental strike that sent the energy, powered by her anger into him, knocking the protective blue mech to the ground. She watched helplessly as he fell and seemed to have a seizure from the pain. How could she? Anyone but him. 

All around her stands the enemy. It was 8 on 1, well 7 on 1 as long as Barricade is holding onto the Doctor. Though a feeble human in their eyes, with her power she was quite the adversary. If only she could control it. Rage was her worst enemy these days but right now guilt was her companion.

Starscream makes an odd noise that almost sounds like comforting, like a drawn out "Awww..." How odd considering that just a minute ago, he was the target of her rage. Now he attempted to care._Was that even possible? Can he care about anything other than himself? _She doubted it and then realized it was his attempt at sarcasm but she is weekend by the strength of that surge and her body is now attempting to recover. It's all just been too much. Too many strikes in too short a time and now she's beat. Any attempt to attack them or defend herself right now would result in unconsciousness or getting squished just by pissing the wrong one of them off. Tina turns her face up slowly to meet the cold gaze of Starscream's red optics staring down at her. Standing up, she is only meagerly blocking Volt's fallen frame with her small, soft body. If she tries to run, they'll catch her. There is no where left to hide and no one else knows where they are right now. She now knows that she will have to surrender. If she, Volt and Doctor Tanaka are to make it out of here alive, she'll have to play Starscream's game and do what the demented 'Con does best. Lie, steal, cheat and swindle her way into and out of everything and somehow do so with only minimal damage to her own hide. Gulp

She has to become her worst enemy. Looking up at them all, with a burdened soul and a heavy conscious, she does not drop her head but raises it up defying her own fear. The next step she makes, steals her dignity but taking a painfully dry swallow she does what she knows she must. She kneels down on one knee and says three words that she knows she'll regret while raising both hands up to shoulder level, "Okay, You win." She looks up only to see that the smirk on Starscream's face is enough to cut her soul in half and drive her to more rage but now is not the time and here is not the place. She follows humbly only speaking up when the others get too rough with Volt's limp frame. "If you want me to continue to cooperate and not self terminate, you'll treat him with the respect that he would treat you with."

Starscream and Skywarp both give her a scathing look of distaste at her disresepect but at this point, she was so tortured by what she did, she may just self terminate. Starscream waves his hand to the others to do as she asked, he doesn't smirk this time.

* * *

"Where are they?" Optimus asks with nothing but concern in his voice. 

"We don't know." Jazz stands with one hand on his chin and his optics narrowed in frustration. Bluestreak sits off to the side cycling through the transmission logs. "We lost them. Volt tried to transmit something but was abruptly cut off. We have no signal off of him, can't confirm any transmissions, it's like they disappeared off of the face of the planet." the white and dark blue mech slowly turns to Optimus with the utmost concern on his face. Volt and Tina are his friends. They wouldn't disappear unless something had happened. Something bad, real bad. Something that wears a purple badge and is always looking for the next great thing. Right now, that great thing is Tina. They've already tried taking her once and almost succeeded. Since that fateful day, they've probably created some sort of defense against her, meaning they would be able to snatch the girl if left unprotected.

Almost as if reading Jazz's mind, Optimus speaks up, breaking the silence,"I would bet a lot that the Decepticons are behind this. The next question is where could they have taken them?"

"I'll tell you," Both mechs turn in the direction of the voice that could answer them. Enigma stands with her mask up and her optics glowing a fierce dark red. No hiding her anger not now. The black femme walks into the room and taps on a panel below a monitor. Looking up at the screen she points to coordinates on the satellite image. "Oregon. Thats where they hide. In an old extinct volcano."

"But which one? Theres a ton." Jazz stares intently at the screen before him.

"_That_I don't know," the black femme shrugs."You'd have to ask Thundercracker but who knows where on Earth he is right now." She steps back a few feet and stares intently at the screens before them all. They all watch her carefully as she brings Oregon up on a satellite map. "Find the most remote on possible. Miles from any towns, heavily wooded and far from any curious hikers. Something off the beaten path. That's where you're going to find them. Starscream has always loved his private little lairs." She rolls her optics dramatically at the thought.

"They're more than likely using the girl as a weapon," Prowl says as he enters the room. The mech had managed to spot a modified Nissan 350Z and a California Highway patrol car at a traffic stop as soon as he was introduced to a human highway. He managed to scan both, creating an unusual hybrid between the two. A black and white japanese sports car with low profile lighting. He stood before them in the robot version of that configuration, exuding the confidence that seems to come naturally to all high ranking military commanders.

"Or they're using her as a power source." Enigma added dryly. The black femme, much like the others, never cared for Prowl's one sided view of everything and his inability to think outside of the box as Captain Lennox would joke about when talking about _his_ bosses.

"I think she'd be better used as a weapon." Prowl says matter of factly.

"Well, Prowl," Enigma says with irritation dripping from her tone, hands on her hips and looking every bit an irritated femme, "I think I have more experience with Starscream's thought process than you. So I'm going to say, energy source now, weapon_ later_; after he has a chance to experiment on her. Which is what we're trying to avoid." Enigma has never cared for Prowl, a feeling that is mutual. He has never trusted her origins, she'll never trust his lack of ability to think on the fly. Winging it, was not a skill the strategist was capable of accomplishing. Being a former Decepticon, she was a constant threat in his mind.

"Okay, you two. Lets all think about the possibilities of Starscream's next move." Optimus says calmly moving between them both. "Enigma, do you think you can find Thundercracker?"

"Yes. I think I may know where he his." She answers him calmly and less standoffish.

"Good. Please, find him as soon as possible."

Enigma nods respectfully and turns to leave, feeling Prowl's stare upon her, she glares back at him with angry red optics, attempting to burn holes into his armor as she exits.

"Jazz, Prowl, lets use every resource we have in the meantime to find them, please. Blue Streak, keep monitoring the transmissions just incase you get something." Optimus says to them all as he too turns to exit. His two highest ranking officers nodding and sitting down to figure out exactly how to find them, their best gunner doing his best to locate their last transmission.

* * *

Whatever was in that sedative that Frenzy had given her, it's long term effects were proving to be just as strong as it's initial effect. Tina's head was spinning and swimming all at once. She found it hard to focus on anything in particular and the sounds around her were indistinguishable from anything she could recognize. To add insult in injury, her lack of concentration made her feel as if every single object in her surroundings was oddly fascinating and hilarious at the same time. 

It's hard to deal with reality if one is waking up from a sedative induced slumber with such after effects as mentioned before only to find themselves strapped down to what appears to be a metal table in an underground lair of some sort, surrounded by alien computer equipment.

"Oh my god," She giggles to herself," this is just too cliche." Tina looks round, bending her head at any angle she possibly can to make out the room she is in; a hard task considering her still drugged state. Staring upside down at the wall behind her, she feels the presence of someone else in the room. Tina lowers and turns her head back to her right causing her vision to waver and blurr, making her feel dizzy. "Oh whoa. Note to self, slow down." followed by more giggles. She sees Dr. Tanaka hastily walking towards her with some sort of massive laptop like device in his hands.

"Hey, Doc..." She says in a slightly slurred voice, waving her right hand weakly from where it is clamped down to the table beneath her. "What's with the Frankenstein Lair?"

"Tina, you're awake!" Dr. Tanaka drops the massive laptop down on the floor next to the metal table that she's on and rushes to her side and stops to check her pulse and pupils. He leans in close to her and studies her intently before frowning and taking a step backwards. "I see the after effects are still lingering." He says as he rubs his chin.

"Oh so that wasn't all some weird dream. Oh God, I think I'm going to be sick." Tina lurches as far forwards as the straps on the table will allow before collapsing back onto the cool metal, breathing heavily. A small bead of sweat trails down her forehead. "I'm so dizzy."

Dr. Tanaka rests a hand on her forehead checking her temperature and attempting to calm her. He watches as her hands begin to tremble, yet another side effect of the sedative. There's noting he can do to help her right now. There are no supplies for him to work with or at least none that they've told him about. He wishes he had the ability to get her the hell away from here. Unfortunately the only one of the three of them who has the closest chance of getting her out of there is locked away somewhere inside of the Decepticon's large underground base and he has no idea how he'd break Volt out even if he knew where the Autobot was. Tina would have the greatest chance of saving Volt but she isn't physically capable at the moment. Well, or mentally for that matter either. Plus, should any of them try to even escape, one of them will be killed quite painfully. When Starscream threatened him and explained his strange web of torture should he, Tina or Volt try anything, be it escape or to fight, he believed him.

"Oh, I see she's finally awake." Dr. Tanaka looks up from the metal table to see that Starscream has entered the room. The current Decepticon leader is actually not smirking for once as he studies the prone and immobilized Tina on the table. He presses a button on one of the computer keyboards and the straps hiss and pop as they release Tina and allow her to move.

Tohiro helps her sit up since she appeared to be struggling to do so.

"How long has she been awake?" Starscream asks inquisitively.

"About 5 minutes." Dr. Tanaka glares up at the giant robot. Angry and annoyed at he and Tina's current predicament.

"Will she survive without you in the room?"

"What the hell is that supposed to mean," The Doctor growls back.

Starscream makes a sound that sounds not too much unlike that of a human drawing a deep breath in between clenched teeth before narrowing his gaze at Dr. Tanaka. "Not that I see any point in answering your request, but will she be 'Okay'? Or is she having too many adverse effects from the tranquilizer and may need your assistance?" Starscream looks her over as if he is scanning her. "Tina and I need to talk. Alone."

Doctor Tanaka looks back at Tina who nods assuringly at him. "I'll be alright, 'Hiro. Go. He's not going to do anything to me."

Starscream raises an optic ridge out of surprise at her assuredness to which she only gives him a smirk that is almost as cocky as the very one he is known for. Concerned but seeing how sure she is of her current safety, the doctor nods and gives her a caring pat on her shoulder. Both Tina and Starscream watch as the doctor leaves the room, only looking back once to make sure she is still okay. She smiles at him. Neither she nor Starscream speak for a moment after the door closes behind Dr. Tanaka. Tina then breaks the silence with a irritated sigh and a glare while sitting up and crossing her arms.

"What the hell did you bring me here for? You might as well tell me what kind of twisted experiment you're going to be using me in. I know you used to be a Scientist so I can only guess... hm.. lets see." She starts to lower a finger on her left hand with each guess,"Dismemberment is out of the question. I don't want to be a robot, I enjoy being a human so you can forget that one. Weapon or energy source, Starscream? Entertain me." She sets her jaw, her eyes narrowed in irritation.

"So sure of that are you?" He asks with a snicker. This human is one of the most interesting he's come across. Actually, she is the _only_ interesting one of her kind he has come across.Being a rather fragile race, the humans are usually scared to death of them which they should be since the Decepticons would be more than happy to utterly destroy the wretched race of bacteria infected and disease ridden, soft, easily squished, carbon lifeforms which appears to spread more like a virus than intelligent life. But this human, this Tina girl, is a fighter. So sure of herself. It's probably her physiology that has made her uncannily cocky towards him. She almost reminds him of some of the femmes that used to be on Cybertron millions of years ago. Physically weaker than her male human counterparts, she will still find a way to fight to the death or victory regardless of the odds against her and she'll stand up to just about any threat, no matter how large.

"I am. You haven't answered me." She continues to give him an icy glare.

Now she's getting demanding. Interesting. "I want you to listen carefully. Yes. You will be experimented on. It will be very painful, I promise you that. It's just part of the process. I would never consider," He grimaces at the very thought as the words escape his vocal circuits," turning you into a robot or anything close to one. While skilled and gifted, you human, are not worthy of what we are." He smiles as she glares at him, he continues on." But I'm not going to tell you what my goals are for you. I'll let you figure it out as we go along.

"Now for what I expect of you. You will not try to escape. You will not try to incapacitate me or any of the other Decepticons. If you do, your friends will pay. Dr. Tanaka and the Autobot Volt." He pauses to watch her expression as she thinks about what he has just told her.

"I want to see Volt." She hisses at him.

He chuckles at her again, "Of course you do." He points to one of the monitors on the wall which shows Volt sitting inside of some sort of energy cell. The blue mech looks forlorn and sad in the cell. "See? He's fine."

"You bastard, if you..."

"What, Tina? Hurt him. Such a predictable statement. You humans are all the same with your words. Words backed up by nothing." He crosses his hands over his chest and stares her down, no smirk this time." Like I said, should you decide to retaliate, one of them, either the Doctor or the Autobot, will be punished. If that isn't enough," Starscream looks over to the monitor again as another picture appears. This time the picture is a scene she hasn't seen in ages. She watches as the monitor cycles through scene after scene of all too familiar places. "we may have to pay a surprise visit to your aunt and uncle back home in Maryland. Or even better yet, your brothers. An unfortunate accident..."

The color drains from Tina's face as she stares at the screens in shock. "You son of a bitch!" A tear rolls down her cheek as more pictures of her family's everyday life play out before her on the screen in a slide show.

"These pictures were taken this morning by one of the cassettes that you haven't had the pleasure of meeting. I just want you to see how serious I am, human. We'll talk later. I'll let you enjoy the family photos for now." Taking one last glance at the angered girl he feels rather pleased with himself.

Tina watches Starscream turn to leave and she imagines him blowing up over and over again until the doors close behind him and she is all alone in the room. She knows that there has to be cameras somewhere in the room and she doesn't want to give that bastard the joy of seeing her cry. She chokes back her tears and fights the urge to scream and kick anything. Shaking on the table she only balls up her fists and holds them stiffly under her chin. She looks up as the door opens and Dr. Tanaka walks in.

"They're like the friggin' Mafia, 'Hiro." She points to the screen.

Dr. Tanaka looks up at the monitors and shakes his head as she tells him what Starscream told her. Dr. Tanaka gives her a hug and tells her, "No, they're too advanced to be the Mafia, 'Teen. They're more like Yakuza." Tina can't help but start laughing at his comment. Her laughter dies down to a sigh as she again thinks of how trapped they are.

"Damn it. Like a rat in a maze with no incentive at the end. No cheese. No snacks to nibble on. I'm screwed." She pulls her knees up to her chin and rests her arms on them.

"Tina, it may take a while but we'll figure out a way to get out of here. All of us."

* * *

The two exchange weak smiles as they watch the replay of the images on the screen... 


	12. Sneaky sneaky

A/N: Disclaimer time. I figured it's been a while since I said it. I own nothing mention in here but Volt, Tina and Dr. Tanaka are mine! We get to watch a new side of Tina in the making. She's still the girl we all love but she's got to straighten this situation out somehow.

* * *

Tina Littorio has never claimed to be normal. Not by any means. She's always been a little goofy and slightly more odd than the weirdest kid in school. So when the events that have most recently shaped her life were put into effect, she approached them with a scientific attitude. She watched, studied and made decisions regarding those events as they presented themselves. No matter how weird, strange, alien or just plain out of this universe they may have seemed, she would only shake her head, laugh if the situation called for it and plow on with the gusto of a gladiator. 

Her life gets stranger by the second but she had given up on the possibility that it was all just a dream about two minutes into having woken up on a metal table with enough tubes and wires connected to her that she suddenly sympathized with Pinocchio.

Much like the wooden puppet boy, she longed to be free. She had spent enough time the previous week being a science experiment to an over ambitious and sadistic megalomaniac for whom the displeasure and discomfort of a simple protein based life form like Tina was akin to a child focusing burning sunlight on the back of defenseless ants in a bowl.

Somehow in all of the "Ows!", "What are you doings?", "NO!", "damn yous!", "just wait 'til...", "My..." She had managed to figure out how to appeal to the less demented side of Starscream.

Put him on a pedestal and kiss his aft like there is no tomorrow because there very well may not be.

She was happy to be free of it all, the tubes and wires that is, but more than anything right now she wished for the comfort of a shower. She was almost wiling to beg him to allow her to be escorted somewhere where she could indulge herself in such a treat. But she had to find a way to make it sound as if her bathing would be in the best interest of them all, both human and machine alike. Not an easy task as I'm sure you can imagine.

––––––––––––––––––––

Tina is perched on a desk in the most demure way (Why she is doing this in particular she doesn't know but she feels it helps her get into character of her sleazy aft kissing a bit better) that she can possibly think of.

"But I've done everything you've asked for. I quit yelling almost 5 days ago. I've been on my best behavior. I don't expect you to understand but I swear it's a medical necessity for humans less we die of skin diseases." _If this doesn't work, I'll start genuflecting and building hobby models of F22s and painting them to match him out of some lame form of pretend worship it that is what it takes. _

"No." If he could sound any more determined and cold, ice would emanate from his body.

"I swear, Starscream. I won't run. Make Barricade take me. Let Frenzy follow me. I know he can hide himself in a hologram of that creepy cop guy. That'll keep any curious types at bay." She looks down at her self and curls her upper lip at her grimy post desert appearance. "Look, they can take me to my house. I barely stay there but my clothes... It's secure. No one will see. Hell, I'm missing. People, if they looked, would see a cop car and forget all about it. Puhhhh leeeze." She resorts to begging.

"No." Well, we always new he was a stubborn one.

"What would I have to do to prove to you how important this is? I promise I won't try to blast anyone... for a while." She hides the smirk on her face by acting as if something incredibly interesting is happening outside of the door and he is unaware of it. Tina just wants to get the hell out of this base and get enough to keep her not feeling like a street urchin. She can smell herself. Not the most motivating feeling for a woman. "I give up," she mumbles out of defeat into the air. Time creeps by, she's tired enough to fall asleep right there on the desk or whatever it is. A week and a half's worth of being an around the clock experiment, non stop headaches, eating whatever crap Frenzy manages to wrangle up from his endless Starbuck's trips, and sleeping on a metal table is taking it's toll on her.

"You do smell. I find your race to be quite disgusting. You harbor colonies of microscopic lifeforms on your bodies. You are diseases. A virus on your planet. Endlessly breeding yourselves and more parasitic microscopic life forms. If letting you go "Shower" or whatever the cleansing ritual is you desire will get your nasty little carbon lump of a body off of my desk than I will allow it. Bring back whatever you need to not foul up the base." He stands up, lip components curled and glares hatefully at Tina. Interesting human or not, she is still one of them. It is a waste to see such talents wasted on a fragile, soft, viral life form like a human. She would have been best suited for her powers had she been anything other than what she is, a humaoid, protein based, carbon life form. Hideous and revolting but it wasn't her fault.

Tina grins a grin so sinister that even, had he seen it, Starscream would have been impressed if not slightly worried. She climbs down from the desk and changes her grin into a sweet and thankful smile, "I'd hug you if I knew you wouldn't either squish me, kick me, or laze me. Thank you." She hisses at him, a devilish glint in her eyes.

Starscream watches her carefully. Something isn't right in her behavior but lately she has been changing. The experiments were conducted to force her to behave as he saw fit. To give them control of her. Humans had two sides to them all, the good and the bad. In Tina's case it was the warm, funloving, joyful and kind side for the good. The side that was an optimistic dreamer of unusual intelligence. The other side, is usually the bad. The part that can make the kindest, cookie baking, lovable soccer mom kill. The enemy within. He had seen this side rising up in Tina before but only in little spurts here and there. The experiments were bringing out the best of this side.

Seeing her act a little more like one of them was rather enlightening. The only problem was that he couldn't shake the feeling that her evil side wanted to be given an all day pass to torture every Decepticon within her arms reach. Now he only wanted to know how to control that side as well and use it to his advantage. Give her a little leeway and see how it plays out. He gives her the leeway, but basically puts it on a long leash.

"Barricade will take you. Frenzy and Rumble will both accompany you. Take the doctor as well."

"But.." She protests, fruitlessly.

"This is your idea, Tina. Not mine." He smiles at her so kindly with his burning red optics that she feels the hair on the back of her neck stand on end. She crosses her arms and wipes the grin off of her face. "They will go with you and will watch if should you try anything... heroic, Tina. Am I clear or should I just let you suffer a bit more?"

"That depends. Are you enjoying it?" She raises an eyebrow at him and gives him a smirk that only is inferior to his own in size. Tina hops down from the table and gives him a mock salute. "Aye, Cap'n."

"Leave now before I change my mind." He turns his attentions to the monitors and screens before him, again ignoring her very presence.

"Roger that," Tina mumbles to herself as she beats feet out of the makeshift office and down to the lab where Tohiro sits.

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

To say that the sound of Tina's sneakers slapping down the hallway at such a fast pace sounded cartoonish was an understatement. Tohiro Tanaka had turned around to face the oversize doorway to the lab upon hearing the the slapping, running footsteps getting closer. He half expected to see Tina being chased by one of the smaller Decepticons as she had been a few times in the last week for using her new found skills on Rumble as an experiment of her own. He did not expect to see her practically somersault into the room in her slightly disheveled manner.

"'Hiro, come on. We're gonna go shower. Well, I mean, I convinced Starscream that I need a shower. He said you come with. Lets go." She grabbed her now grimy backpack and slid it over her shoulders making her look like she was half teenage mutant ninja turtle. The ninja and turtle being part of the same entity on her back. She ran over and grabbed his hand, begging him. "Shut it down, 'Hiro. We gotta go before Machiavelli changes his mind and say no!"

"But I..." Dr. Tanaka protested anxiously as she pulled.

"Shut it down, 'Hiro." She begged, jumping up and down while staring at the doorway.

"Okay. Okay. My goodness you're getting pushy these days." He looked over his glasses at the controls and buttons infront of him, saving, closing, exiting out and shutting down everything he could.

"Yeah, well, being the constantly tortured pet of a 20 foot tall jet with an ego problem does that to you." Something in her gaze was off more and more everyday, Tina began to resemble the crazy lady that lived in the dumpster behind the deli that he would frequent for lunch breaks between classes. Tohiro figured it was only a short while before Tina started talking to herself and swatting at the imaginary spirits as well. It killed him to see her like this but from the very beginning of this ordeal with getting kidnapped by the Decepticon's Tina had been adamant that they play along and listen to all of Starscream's out of this universe demands and half cocked ideas. The doctor was getting to the point he could no longer agree and wanted to give up. The irrevocable damage this was having on Tina, he felt, was worth his own life to stop.

He clicked off the last of the monitors and followed Tina out of the doorway.

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

She was surprised at how well she had slept on the way to her house. She was further shocked to see that that was where Barricade had taken her. As Tina stepped out of the car and into the bluish orange sunlight of the first dawn, she couldn't help but check the sky for any familiar shape flying over head which would give her some sense of hope. Nothing. She sighed and fiddled with the keys in her pocket, trying to find the key to open the front door in the cold early December morning.

"Jesus!" She coughed at the smell as she walked in the door. "Did something die in here?"

Tohiro stood back looking as if he had been smacked in the face and insulted by the smell that assaulted them upon opening the door. "Tina do you have any pets?"

"No..." She ran to the kitchen to check the smell. "But I forgot about the chicken I had left out to thaw on the counter. Ick. This," She said distastefully while holding the offending, graying, dripping bird, still wrapped up in plastic and placed in a bowl up for him to see," is just a small reason as to why I didn't persue a career in forensics." She gagged as she threw the bird into the trash can, pulling out paper towels and a spray bottle of Clorox from under the sink.

"We're not here so that you can play homemaker. We're here so that you can take care of the business you need to. Get what you need and go." Echoed a growling voice from beyond the open garage door. Tina rolled her eyes and flashed the finger at the wall that separated the kitchen from the breezeway separating it from the garage. "I saw that."

"Good for you, Barricade." She hollered back. She's on Starscream's good side for the moment, if that's what you want to call it, not that cranky 'cop' out front.

Frenzy snickered to himself as he went through Tina's cabinets in the hopes of finding what she can only guess was an espresso machine. Thank god she didn't own one.

Just happy to be in anything other than the cold, stark base, she made her way back to her bedroom to use the shower but not before pointing out the extra bathroom, towels, toiletteries and the drawer in her spare room where her brother had left some sweat pants, teeshirts and jeans, to the doctor.

Immediately upon entering her room she couldn't help but breathe breath of fresh air. She was home, if only for a short while. She stripped off her clothes without a care and cranked the shower up to a powerful and comfortable temperature. Standing infront of the mirror in the master bath, she decided she'd need some music for a change.

Tina stepped back into her bedroom and found her other iPod (what she's a gadget freak?) and popped it into the Bose sound box on her dresser. She turned up the Very Best of Siouxsie and the Banshees starting the album off on Hong Kong Garden and then opened up a drawer in her dresser and reached back past all her good underpants and bras to the spare phone she kept in the back. "God bless GSM," she muttered softly as she kissed the phone and fished out it's charger. This phone was part of a family plan. She paid it's cheap bill but only used it when family came to visit or when she absolutely positively needed to. She carried the phone and it's charger into the bathroom with her, plugging it into the over head light and resting it on top out of sight of any small, prying, four eyed, robots with sticky fingers on all four hands.

Tina took her time, enjoying the shower as if it was the first and last she'd ever have. She shampoo'd, conditioned, lathered, slathered, shaved, exfoliated until she was a ripe pink color from the heat of the water. She stepped out feeling like a new woman and scratched any ideas of make up except some blood red lipstick and then concentrated on doing something low maintenance with the out of control mop on her head. She grabbed a scarf and wrapped it carefully around her head, popping two oversized hoop earings into her ears. She stepped out into her room and threw as many outfits as she could fit into her battered backpack, stopping only to slip into a black teeshirt and jeans with a simple black leather motorcycle jacket over the top for warmth. She might as well look herself regardless of her situation.

Before she stepped out, she ran back into the bathroom grabbing as many necessary toiletries as she could fit into her backpack and reached up for the phone. Tina tossed the charger aside and cradled the phone in her hand for two minutes until the screen's battery charge readout read full. She turned the phone on long enough to adjust the call settings and then hastily turned it off, she shoved it into her jacket pocket, pulling her extra iPod out of the Bose and placing it in her jacket as well. She smiled at the mirror as she thought of her plans and walked out of the bathroom and the bedroom into the hallway.

Tohiro was sitting on the couch and she nodded at him as she walked into the kitchen and opened up the fridge. Tina searched for something in particular. Something to fit into the plan she had been working on in her head since she had left the Decepticon's base. Finding a rather unsure looking egg salad sandwich, she plucked it out and carried it and a coke with her to the car. She gave Tohiro an evil little grin as she locked up and they slid into an awaiting and annoyed as always Barricade.

"Ready when you are boss." She sang at the Saleen going so far as to annoy him by running one finger over the dashboard. He hated being touched by humans and she loved irritating him every chance she got.

_It's going to be a long ride_, she thought to herself. _Glad I came prepared._

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

"Pull over! I'm gonna be sick!" They were close to the base, she knew it. Good thing she had stayed awake long enough on the way down to her house, to check out the local scenery and attempt to find some sort of landmark to remember. Tina waited until they had hit the Oregon border to eat the egg salad sandwich which she had to practically inhale and wash down with coke just to eat. That gave her long enough to get sick off of it. Barricade was battling her but she knew what would fix him.

"It's in here or out there, Barricade. It's up to you." The car literally screeched to a halt. She smiled even as she held back the vomit. Tina clawed for the door and jumped out of the car, running across grass to the edge of the trees. Keeping her back to the car, she managed to block from view what she was doing. Yes, she was vomiting, but she was also turning on the phone in her jacket and calling Glen with it. She was thankful that she even got a signal all the way out here. Between her lurches as her stomach turned itself inside out out she heard the rings. _Pick up the phone, Glenn._ Her mind panicked. Just when she was ready to give up she heard the click and the "Hello?"

"Glenn!" she moaned as another wave of nausea hit her. "Augh. It's Tina." Hearing footsteps behind her, she pressed mute as she said, "Trace call. Trace the call." She was lucky again, it was only Tohiro coming to check on her.

"Tina are you okay?" Tohiro asked her. Her face had a grey tinge to it and she looked pretty worse for wear.

"... the sandwich... it was bad." She grumbled as another wave hit. Between lurches she managed to say, "We're almost there right? 5 minutes? The tall mountain right? Oh god..." then vomited again.

"Tina, we have to go _now_." Tohiro urged her, looking back at the angrier by the second Barricade not far behind them on the road.

"'K." Tina looked carefully where she had just vomited and moved forwards over to a cleaner area, squatted down and grabbed her stomach while lurching forward again. Only this time, she didn't actually vomit, she instead made the necessary sounds to say she was doing so as she dropped the phone in the grass. "3 of us," is what she mumbled at last as she stood up and slightly nodded at the doctor before returning with him.

"Can it, Barry." She hissed at Barricade as he protested the amount of time it took her to 'empty her reservoir'. "I didn't want to mess up your pretty interior you freakin' ingrate." No sense in playing nice with him. He only seemed to respond to insults anyway.

She remained silent except for the random moan at the pain in her stomach. But she was comfortable knowing what she may have accomplished by turning her insides out on the empty stretch of Oregon roadway just a few miles back. The smirk returned to her face as they approached their destination. She looked at her watch and timed the drive since she was sick. 5 minutes had passed._ Good guess_, she told her self. The odd glint in her eye returned as well.


	13. Found: Superhero me?

A/N: Hypothesis: Tina has a power of some strange sort. Synopsis: She finally admits that they're super powers. - I've been reading the reprints of Marvel Comics. There's my Shockwave homage.

So I saw this **amazing **fanart picture of Soundwave that Jamie Egerton (Crimson Dynamo) did on **twf2005** a transformers forum. He did Soundwave as a Blakan MK6 Mobile Communications Vehicle in the movieverse style. It just made so much sense when I saw it. If you'd like to see the picture, just email or PM me and I'll send you the link. Anyway, that is why I chose that specific vehicle to be Soundwave's newest look. Because Jamie did such a great job.

* * *

275 lbs bounding down a flight of stairs and rounding a corner, beating down countless blades of grass with each running step toward anyone can be scary. Even is that anyone happens to be a red Lamborghini Gallardo that could transform into a rather ornery 18 foot tall robot with very large weaponry. 

"Side Swipe, open up!!!" Glenn Whitman waits with the patience of a saint. For approximately 15 seconds.

"Side Swipe, man. Open the hell up! You see I'm about to loose it." With every ounce of patience left in his large frame, he fights the urge to slap Side Swipe's roof with his hand. An act, should he decide to do, that would more than likely result in Glenn not getting far that night and then having to call a cranky Maggie to come and get him in an even more irritated Sun Streaker. Glenn decides to kill Side Swipe with kindness as he chews impatiently on his lip, lines of worry crossing his face with each nibble.

"Look man, I got a call from Tina. An anxious call telling me to trace her. I did. I _need_ to show this to Optimus. Come o..." The door opens up ending what was about to become a rather uncharacteristic fit of begging and pleading. "Thank you." He grunts as he slips into the seat behind the wheel and resting all the gear he had carried down with him onto the passenger seat.

"What did she say?" Side Swipe asks in a manner so relaxed that it makes Glenn want to beat on the steering wheel until the Autobot begs for mercy. Knowing that the odds of that happening are not in his favor he only rolls his eyes and sighs tiredly. The red Gallardo pulls out of the driveway of Glenn's town home and heads toward the highway at a speed that most logical and responsible people would call unsafe. That is, if he _was_ a person.

"She said, 'trace the call.' Oh and I heard she and the doctor saying a few other things. I swear I heard her puking. She sounded sick." Glenn stops himself before he starts rambling nervously. The adrenaline rush is getting the best of him and he needs to settle down. He looks down at the PDA in his hand and checks the coordinates that he had gotten after a tracing the call. Tina's stressed out step-cousin, looks out of the window and watches the lights of cars going by on the other side of the highway. He thinks about time, distance and speed and how things always seem to slow down when adrenaline starts pumping and how long it's been since he slept. Life was starting to be more like an odd hallucination each day.

"The last thing..." He raises his plump arm up on the window sill and rests his forehead in his hand, focusing on the taillights of the car in front of them, "The last thing that I swear I heard her say was '3 of us...' before I didn't hear anything but the sound of a car door slamming and a car speeding away. I'll tell you what, that wasn't Volt that I heard. Not sounding like that."

"Relax, Glenn. We'll get to the base and see what we can make of it all." Side Swipe actually sounded pretty serious. A fact, that had Tina heard, would have caught her totally off guard. She and the twins hadn't always seen eye to eye on things. Regardless of size.

* * *

They had spent over a week trying to pinpoint the exact location of the Decepticon base. Jazz had to give those scheming Con's credit for once, this time, they did an amazing job of keeping themselves hidden. He and Bluestreak had spent the better half of the week doing everything from analyzing energy signatures of the area, to studying radio frequency patters to the audacious task of checking for magnetic anomalies created by any rogue energy sources, such as Tina, would show. They had monitored communications channels and even checked weather and spy satellite logs. 

Nothing.

Jazz had to admit that he found the human governments lack of distrust in their own citizens by posting spy satellites above their own country in a fixed orbit, a bit unsettling. After checking the Internet for anything that might lead them in the right direction, he saw, courtesy of forums and chat rooms that some American's found this unsettling as well. Some of their ideas on how to combat the lack of trust left him mildly amused and broke up the monotony of the search. But even the satellites did not help to find anything.

Enigma had come and gone from her search for Thundercracker countless times over the last week and every time she had done so, she seemed more and more withdrawn and possibly a bit worried but silent as always. Even the twins had left her alone for once. Sideswipe left his usual jokes to himself which they were all grateful for. When the black seeker goes into what her closest friends, Bluestreak and Arcee, call her "loner mode", a few of them had learned it was best to give her a wide berth and allow her to just hide in the shadows less they face her more vengeful side. The femme and Tina had formed a strange and silent bond that no one understood as the girl and the femme tended to keep their conversations private when not chatting it up with Arcee, Mikela and Maggie. Tina's kidnapping seemed to strain the dark seeker. The disappearance of Thundercracker, who still teetered on the edge of indecision, and the added fact of Starscream's involvement in the entire ordeal made her seem a little more off kilter than usual.

Volt's absence was felt amongst them all as well. The blue mech usually spent most of his time with Tina anyway, but the void left by his absence seemed to be growing wider and wider with each passing hour that he and his human charges remained unfound. Volt's laid back, surfer type attitude could light up the most miserable of days. Jazz had no one as focused on Earth culture as he was to talk to passing the time as the hands of the clock turned over and over. This fact left the usually upbeat white and blue mech feeling blue. Bumblebee and Bumblebee had no one to pick on playfully as all four mechs had a nasty habit of competing against each other jokingly every Earth Day.

The human element of the current loss wasn't so much felt as seen. Aside from growing close to Enigma and Arcee, Tina had hit it off immediately with Mikela upon their initial introduction. The two girls had become fast friends regardless of the 5 year age gap between them. Tina had been friends with Maggie as well, their friendship going back to the early college days. All of the females on the base, both Cybertronian and human alike, had formed a bond that was tightened by the gap of a missing friend.

Tina's step cousin Glenn had appeared to have lost a few pounds from stress since her disappearance. Glenn spent as much time stressing out in the command control room with Jazz and Bluestreak as he did at work everyday. Glenn looked as if he needed a pizza soon.

Sam spent the time contemplating what they possibly be doing to Tina. The potential of her abilities was almost as destructive as the AllSpark could have been had it fallen into Decepticon hands. He thought back to how he felt on top of that building over a year and a half ago. Scared half out of his mind and about to be filleted by a rather nasty and recently awoken Megatron. Sam saw the greed in Megatron's optics when the enraged and power lust filled Decepticon leader saw the cube clutched with a death grip to Sam's side. He recalls the look of satisfaction in the giant tyrant's optics when he thought he had succeeded in killing the boy by destroying the statue upon which he held on for dear life with his mace. That look is all it took for Sam to fear for Tina. Megatron was evil but focused. Starscream is evil but insane.

Ratchet and Wheeljack worked steadily at keeping things running as designed or in some cases, not. Ratchet began to miss Tina's presence in the med bay. Usually, the rambunctious human girl would be steadily working on exploring her powers and sharing each new discovery with the excitement of a child. He found the experience quite rewarding considering that the last time he had been involved in anything remotely similar to it had been ages ago back on Cybertron when Bumblebee was coming of age. A time that was just a bit more destructive to his med bay as Tina's discovery was too.

Wheeljack had grown accustomed to Doctor Tanaka's studious and scientific mind brainstorming new ideas in his lab everyday. Half finished plans written in the human hand, laid strewn about the half finished plans written in a Cybertronian hand, here and there in the lab. Hopefully all this would return to normal soon. The oppressive feeling that that hung over the base like a cloud of despair was beginning to smother their optimism.

Ironhide, Prowl and Prime had been busy planning how to go about things once Tina, Volt and Dr Tanaka's location was found. Simply attack was Ironhide's idea which much to his surprise was shared by Prowl. Usually Prowl and Ironhide would butt heads on just about everything but this time, they were seeing optic to optic. Something for which Optimus Prime was grateful for even if he didn't agree with their approach.

It's hard loosing a soldier. It's even harder when you know that the soldier in question is, must be, alive somewhere but captive. The Decepticons history of punishment is something he wouldn't wish on any mech on either side regardless of their crimes. He feared for what they could be doing to Volt. He feared what sort of twisted plan Starscream had concocted involving Tina, the doctor and the blue mech. He hoped that soon the answers would come.

About 5 minutes later, after he closed his optics in a silent gesture of aggravation and pinched the bridge of his nose willing the situation to improve somehow, it did exactly that.

* * *

The call over the general system in the building, for everyone to come to the control room sounded urgent. It was the first urgent tone any of them had heard in a week. Every single last soul entering that room hoped that it was a positive urgent and not a possible nightmare. 

"Jazz, Bluestreak, report." Prowl entered into the room with the demeanor of a General preparing for battle and speaking up before either Ironhide or Optimus had a chance too.

Jazz changes the screen on the monitor before swiveling his chair around to face them. For the first time in a couple of days, Jazz's smile is back. His optics still denote his worry but that smile does it's best to relax them a bit. "Sideswipe just contacted us. He and Glenn are inbound with possible info on the location of Tina and Volt."

"ETA?"

"Any minute now." Jazz answers. His gaze shifts past everyone to the door to the Com's room. Glenn Whitman slides through the doorway as if he is an extra in Fat Albert on Ice. He clutches his laptop closely too him but bends over to catch his breath.

"T-Tina.. She called me." He coughs into his empty hand saying a silent promise to himself to start working out. His heart is racing at a pace that would be dangerous for even a person in better shape. Glenn lets out one more harsh cough before walking calmly into the room. He nods looking up at Prime, Prowl and Ironhide as he passes by them on his way over to the ledge of the computer bank where Jazz and Bluestreak are seated. He opens up his computer and powering it up from it's slumber, still hacking a little he manages to say, "She called me earlier and told me to trace the call. She sounded sick but anxious."

"Did she say anything else?" Arcee's voice calls out from the doorway. Beside the small pink femme stand Mikela and Enigma, both silent but curious with hopeful expressions on their faces.

Glenn looks around to everyone he possibly can as if trying to convey the importance of Tina's simple message through his own emotions. "Not much to me directly. Well a whole lot of 'Glenn, trace the call. Trace the call, Glenn.' She mentioned a tall mountain and '5 minutes' in distance. At first I thought she was rambling then I realized she was trying to tell me landmarks." He runs some wires from the computer terminal that makes up the part of the room he is standing in and runs them into his computer. Glenn watches carefully and everyone in the room remains so silent you could hear the dust settling on the floor, as the images from Glenn's laptop show up on the over sized monitor on the wall.

A satellite image of eastern Oregon appears on the monitor. Various shapes and items are overlain on the image in a slightly curved grid pattern. Glenn points up at the screen explaining what they are all looking at. "All I did was hack into her mobile carrier's systems to find out the area she was calling from. It gave me the tower that had the strongest signal strength to her location and a few more near it that were picking up the signal. I used the three towers with the strongest signal to triangulate her position to within thissss... area... right here." He highlights the area in green.

"Now, according to what I overheard her saying to whom I suspect was the doctor, she said the tall mountain. The tallest mountain in_that_ area is here." He places a red dot on over top the area where the mountain's summit is.

"At the time she said ,'5 minutes away' or s-something like that. When I finally stopped hearing her talk, a second passed then I heard a loud car accelerate away from the phone. Not loud like Volt loud buzzing loud but like big, powerful V8 loud." Glenn's eyes are as big as saucer plates.

"Barricade." Sam and Bumblebee say in unison from the far corner of the room.

"Yeah. That's what I was thinking too. I figured he's probably in a hurry and hauling ass, so I guesstimated an average speed of 90 mph from the main access road in the vicinity of where Tina's call may have come from and divided it by 5 minutes getting..." he moved yet another small icon to the position he had come up with. "This...," a yellow triangle landed right on top of the red dot. "Mt Jefferson, Oregon."

"Dammit. Away from any metropolitan areas, off of the main highways, surrounded by woods, incredibly steep and not easy to get to. I should have known." Enigma mumbles defeated while rubbing the back of her neck as she has a terrible habit of doing when she's either nervous or very irritated.

"Theres a lot too choose from up there, E." Bluestreak adds supportively from his station at the end of the computer terminal. He leans over typing away on the keys and buttons in front of him switching his screen to a live image of the area on infared satellite. He zooms in on the coordinates for Mt Jefferson to check the energy signature of the area hoping for any sign of heat that is large enough to be a Decepticon, a weapon, or a very angsty computer security specialist with the uncanny ability to create massive amounts of energy. Seeing nothing, Bluestreak opens up another window on a split screen that cycles through the last three hours of recordings from that satellite.

The conversations in the room are a buzz when he looks over at the monitor that Jazz has returned to showing the spy satellite view when a sudden flash in the corner of his vision catches his attention. He turns back to his screen just as a bright white flare shoots out of the side of Mt Jefferson. It's not the flare of a volcanic eruption on the very dormant and eroding mountain but a flare that appears like direct energy weapon fire. Bluestreak, slightly alarmed but curious, scurries to play back the image from the still recording feed. He watches again as the same flare shoots up from a somewhere on the side of the densely forested volcano.

"Jazz! Check all energy readings of the area around that region of Oregon right now. Radiation readings too." Bluestreak barks at the white mech while still watching the replay on the screen.

"There's a spike... how?" Jazz looks over at the screen above Bluestreak and back at his, his jaw slack in disbelief.

Bluestreak gets up from his chair and stands between the two screens watching the replay and the dropping energy levels in the area before turning back to Optimus and smiling the winning grin of his."Sir, it may be a coincidence but I think she's trying to tell us something."

* * *

There is no rest for the wicked or the innocently kidnapped on the verge of becoming wicked with good intentions. Tina was put to work no sooner than she had arrived back at the Decepticon base. 

They were outside for once. A simple fact for which she was very grateful and trying her best to not piss off Starscream for once. Her powers had been growing in strength and the doctor felt that she had finally reached a point in which she needed to be outside with no limitations to hold her back.

She had been taken to a spot well away from their base but obviously still on the same mountain. This time she was surprised to see that she wouldn't be able to harass Barricade because he wasn't her chauffeur this time around. She was a bit disappointed about this being as harassing Barricade was becoming a sport for her. Instead of the permapissed black and white Saleen, she was escorted to this remote side of the mountain in a blueish gray mobile communications vehicle. It wasn't until they were about 5 minutes into the drive that she figured out _who_ she was riding in.

"Soundwave?"

Silence. Not that she expected anything other than that. Tina looked over at Dr. Tanaka who was also silent but raised an entertained eyebrow while looking around at Soundwave's new look.

"Well, this is much better than a boom box. Welcome to the new millennium." She said with the sweetest most audio circuit grating voice she could manage, sinking in the seat just to be sure to annoy the hell out of him. No matter how much she tried to get some sort out of the impassive mech he never delivered.

Still silent. Damned metal Vulcan that he is.

The vehicle skidded to a rough halt on the loose gravely surface in a clearing of trees up on a ridge of sorts. Tina climbed out carefully, slipping on the rocks a bit as she walks toward a flat rock sitting on the edge of the ridge and climbs up on it and remains standing, facing the valley below. Dr. Tanaka follows but chooses to sit and also stare out at the valley.

"It's beautiful." Tina says as she deeply inhales the fresh air. Too beautiful. "It figures that someone with the mindset of the Decepticons would choose a location like this in which to build their base of operations on Earth. Look at the beauty. How serene and innocent it is." Tina waves her arms out visualizing the grandeur of the view and animates her actions with funny faces, " Then here is this huge mountain looming over it like Mt Doom. What is inside? Oh nothing really, just the very force that wants to destroy the planet, take all of it's resources and leave it a as a barren rock floating in the void of space." She shakes her head and holds up an invisible cup to the air as if toasting the destruction of the Earth as she's sure the Decepticons would like to do. She sits down on the rock with a frown, pulls her iPod out of her jacket pocket and pops the earbuds in her ears.

Tina has always relaxed better if she had music to listen too. Tohiro understood this as he had known her long enough to be familiar with all of her odd habits. The doctor pulled his notes out of the bag he had slung around his shoulder and set them down on the rocks next to him. Behind them Soundwave stood as silent as always and creeping Tina out as he also _always did_.

_Of all the Decepticons to send me out here with. God_. She rolls her eyes and lays back on the rocks. Today she decided to take a slightly different approach relaxing by changing her choice of music. She raises her ipod above her face and scrolls through her playlists looking for the only songs that she wants to hear at the moment.

One time, Enigma told her a secret about Soundwave. Play a perfect or near perfect melody around him and watch what happens. He's transfixed by it. She brought her iPod on this trip mostly as an experiment courtesy of the juicy little tidbit Enigma had given her that didn't make much sense at the time. Tina has a varied collection of music on the iPod but most of it is dance music, punk, alternative and rock. But she does have a weakness for Italian opera and exceptionally beautiful classical music. She finds the songs that will hopefully have the desired effect and closes her eyes as "Ave Maria" in soprano plays from the headphones.

She moves her mouth along silently, lip syncing the few lines she can remember in flawless Italian. This is the one song that has always made her feel as if she was flying. A truly beautiful song. Deep inside of her chest she feels her heart start to pound her ribs into submission. She concentrates on the thought that created her sudden rush. She concentrates on her power within.

A light glow to his left breaks Tohiro's concentration on his notes. He glances to his over to it and sees Tina, who is still laying on the rock with one hand holding her ipod over her heart, moving her mouth silently to a song that he doesn't recognize and waving her left hand along with the notes of the song. Between her fingers of her left hand, dances a little blue spark. Back and forth it twirls between her fingers like an anxious little pet. She watches the flickering spark with a distant gaze of interest before tossing it into the air. The spark floated above her for a moment before exploding into a shimmering rain of smaller sparks that fell down around her like a veil of glitter.

"Ave Maria" ends and is replaced by a choir version of Lacrimosa to which Tina's hands dance in an arch of blue above her again as she feels the music in her heart and waves her hands about as if she is the conductor of a symphony of ghosts floating above. Unfortunately the one thing she has in common with the emotionless, cold sparked, mech behind her is an immense love of melody's. The biggest difference being that she is not choosy. Perfect has so many more qualifications in her mind. The blue sparks dance about her hand yet again in perfect time with the emotional tone of the music.

Tohiro leans back on the rock and checks behind them to see Soundwave standing as still as a sentinel and watching Tina carefully. He was amazed at how quick and in such a short amount of time, Tina had gone from being wary of her powers to not only excepting them but exploring their limits at every moment that she could. If only she could master her mind as well as her abilities. The vibrance of being a source and control of free floating energy meant that her mind almost seemed electrified too. She thought faster, reacted faster and had most recently become what had seemed more impulsive but was in fact, just a decision being made at a speed the most humans would not be able to even form a simple sentence in. Perhaps it was the processors that acted as a dampening field on her nervous system that allowed this speed. Perhaps it was just part of the natural progression of what ever it is that had been happening to her for years but Tohiro Tanaka watched as his former student and now primary patient was blossoming into something other than just the pretty, quirky, captivating girl she had been before.

"It's working. Holy shit. It's working." Tina whispers in Japanese. Tohiro looks back over to Tina who laying on her back and peering upside down has her eyes trained on Soundwave who has still not moved. Again another spark appears in her hand and she begins to roll it around. The song ends on her headphones and it is only after the last note fades that Soundwave moves again. Tina's face twists up into a frown as she searches her iPod settling on the other other classical music she has. Movie Soundtracks. No more fun for her, it's back to work now. She settles on John Williams' Close Encounters of the Third Kind and shows the playlist to Hiro who laughs at her choice.

"Hey, pretty fitting don't you think?" She grins comically and stands up on the rocks, the blue spark in her hand rolling back and forth lazily between her fingers as if it's trying to weave with a string of light. Tina stuffs the iPod in her pocket and turns around to Soundwave barely saying above a whisper to the mech, "I hope you like this one as well. I'm playing it in homage to you and your cronies." She knows he can hear her. He can hear just about anything.

She turns away from towering blue mech again and faces the valley, taking in the music. "This has been one of my favorite movies since my childhood. Amazing how I never thought _I_ would be Roy." She raises her hands and notices that now both have blue sparking balls of energy in them. Her eyebrows knit out of confusion as if she doesn't know where the balls came from. Holding them close to her face and staring intently she realizes that neither are touching the hands on which they are rolling around on but are levitating just above them. She narrows her eyes and almost instantaneously the balls split into two, causing her to flinch just a bit. Still staring she lowers her hands back down to her sides and the balls remain at eye level with her.

"Tohiro. Tohiro. Look!" she whispers hoarsely to the doctor. Tohiro looks up and jerks back a bit startled at what is occurring. Slowly Tina raises her hands up again and all four balls of energy start to move around her like electrons around a nucleus. "Something is happening." The orbs of light build up faster and faster around her in their crisscross orbit until they are no longer distinguishable as individual balls of light but as streaks. She definitely looks like the nucleus of an atom now. A smiling, laughing nucleus at that. Tohiro's mouth hangs open as he watches the vision in front of him. For the first time in his life, he knows what it feels like to be astounded. Truly astounded.

She tries to watch the streaks but can't, they are simply too fast. "This is weird." _Okay, somehow I'm doing this. Just how? Get a grip, Tina. Get a grip._ She decides to try to move them. Bringing her hand up close and along her body she raises it up, imagining throwing the balls of energy or guiding them upward. The streaks come together at her hand as if being guided by her mind and shoot up into a stream of light that disappears in a blinding flash of light high above them.

Dr. Tanaka is shocked.

Tina is shocked.

Soundwave is... well, he's Soundwave. If he ever is shocked by anything the only one who'll know is him.

"How did you do that? Do you think you can do that again?" Dr. Tanaka is asking the questions like a little kid dying of curiosity.

"I don't know. I can try." No sooner do those words leave her mouth than does another ball appear in her left hand. "This is nuts!" she says while staring this one down as it grows in her hand, snapping and crackling angrily against a force that no one can see. She winds up like a baseball pitcher and throws it toward a nearby tree. The ball strikes the tree and explodes in a shower of sparks. Tina and Tohiro watch carefully as the tree teeters back and forth, finally crashing down.

"You just killed... that tree." The doctor says in total astonishment.

"Well, if the Decepticons don't kill me, Greenpeace will." She steadily snaps her fingers watching sparks come to life between them as she does so. "Tohiro, this is amazing. Absolutely amazing. What do we even call it?"

"Tina, I think it's time we got you fitted with a cape." Tohiro grabs her by the shoulders and gives her a very tight hug. "I'm proud of you. Just don't let the powers get to your head."

"Head? I can't believe that I just did that. Me. I did that", she says poking at her ribs. " I'm just a computer nerd."

"No, I think you're a superhero in training." He smiles over his glasses at a beaming Tina.

She spends a minute thinking about what he just said. _Holy shit. I didn't think of it that way_, she chastises herself for being so dense. _This_ is_ a super power._

"Maybe. No spandex though. Not until I start eating normal again."Tina laughs while flicking her middle finger and thumb together and watches the spark that they create. She looks at him, her green eyes appearing more vibrant, more alive than they had ever seen and more emerald than nature has in it's color palate but her smile makes them look like the happiest green ever created. She speaks quickly and in Japanese while she sits back down next to him on the rock, "I think I know what I'll call that beam thing I did."

"Oh really? What's that?" He finds this side of Tina very relaxing and fun.

She looks up at the sky, pulls her ipod out of her pocket and turns it over to the polished back. Instead of the smooth mirror like finish that most iPods have, she has an etching, an etching in the shape of the Autobot insignia. It was something she had learned to do reading a MacLife magazine one day and decided to experiment. Tina winks at Tohiro then leans back and only says, "An S.O.S."

* * *

One more shout out. Somewhere on this sight, a few months back, I read an beautifully written story about Soundwave being totally taken by a choir singing "Lacrimosa." It was a single story piece but absolutely wonderful. I fell in love with the song after reading the story. I love the Britten Sinfonia version of "Ave Maria" even if it is in German and I can only lip sync the Italian. :-P

Thank you Turtle Dreamer for letting me know that it was Shylight who wrote the "Lacrimosa" story Oh, and for checking my harsh spelling on that one:-)


	14. The Great Escape

A/N: Sorry to all that have been waiting a while for this story. I've been up to the Jolly Green Giants ears in work and school. I simply have not had the time.

I'm going to try a slightly different tense in this chapter. For the most part it's been in the present but I keep defaulting to the pastish. Sorry for the change but being as it's been over a month since the last chapter, I figured it's a good time to change/evolve a little.

* * *

"Hey, stranger." The familiar and friendly feminine voice called out to him. 

Volt surmised that he'd been locked up in the holding cell too long and his logic circuits were playing tricks to keep him alert and not bored. He sat up from the flat slab which was the only distinct object in the small cell that was guarded by invisible but painful plasma energy shields along the three walls walls and crackling, spark spitting plasma energy bars that lined the box he had spent 2 Earth weeks in so far.

The blue mech stared curiously at the human before him for a moment as he tried to compute what his optics were telling him. Tina smiled up at him from the middle of his cell, her hands were in the pockets of a well worn, black, hooded sweatshirt, her jeans looked as if they had seen better days and her trusty black Pumas were ready to be retired. Her hair seemed to have been growing at an abnormally fast rate including one dark lock that hung just over her right eye, draping a sparkle in her eye that he didn't remember being there before. Volt looked past her to see that the bars were still doing their best to keep everything out and _him_ in. The soft humming and sporadic snaps of wayward energy broke the silence of the room at irregular intervals.

"I'm real, Volt." Tina chuckled and took a step closer to him. "Stop staring at me like I'm some sort of ghost." She tilted her head slightly and stopped directly at his feet still smiling warmly and biting her lower lip a bit.

Something was definitely different about her but he couldn't quite figure out what it was. For now, he'd just start with how did she get in the room?

"Tina, how did you get in here?" He winced at the slight accusatory sound of his voice.

Tina smiled mischievously and walked back towards the bars. "Watch," she told him as she placed a hand on the bars. The bars snapped wickedly at her hand but gave way, allowing it to pass through unharmed. Small tendrils of energy snaked their way up her arm, coiling around it and tickling the side of her face. She pulled her hand back out and raises it up for him to see. There were no burns, no sign that she just come into contact with a force that could topple even the largest mech. But he did notice that for a split second, lines that glowed preternaturally seemed to fade back into her skin. She flashed him an ear to ear grin while she snapping her fingers, a small blue spark popping in and out of existence between them.

"Needless to say, I've learned a lot since we got here." She stopped smiling and walked carefully over to the platform that he was sitting on, climbed up and plopped down next to him. "I'm sorry it took me this long to get down here. Starscream threatened..."

"I know,Teen." He interrupted her, "I'm sure he told you the same thing that he relayed to me via all of his goons and it all involves death and a lot of pain." He said with the same amount of aggravation attached that Tina showed on her face as he repeated their captor's order. He looked down at Tina who seemed unusually still underneath the cover of bubbly optimism that she usually showed. "Something is different. What did they do to you?" he said quietly, dreading her answer.

She laughed and smiled at his inquiry but under the smile, she had a dark, pained, lonely look. Maybe it was just deep contemplation, her gaze looked as if she had been focusing on something very far away from where they currently were, somewhere dark and foreboding. She sighed and the darkness cleared from her gaze, displaying the Tina he's known for a while now. "Well aside from countless tests, experiments and stuff, I've learned a lot in a short amount of time. It's pretty cool."

She looked as if there were some important details that she was leaving out. Volt chose not to push and see what they are, "You'll have to show me when we finally get out of here." He smiled at her again, she had started biting her lip again. This is must be a new habit since he'd never seen her do it before.

"I will." She rested her hand on top of his, sending a tickling sensation through him. "I've learned how to control that." The tickle sensation intensified to a relaxing buzzing. She looked up again, a thoughtful glow in her eyes. "Volt, I miss you."

"I miss you too, Tina. But I'm glad you're okay." And he was. Right now, he was happy to see her, all other facts and suspicions aside.

She sent another quick buzz through his hand again before shifting her weight and pulling up her legs to sit cross legged. She rested her hands in her lap. They seemed normal again, there was no preternatural glow, no blue sparks. For now, her hands were just regular, small, fragile human hands clasped together serenely in her lap. Her left thumb played with a silver spinning ring on her right thumb and her voice whispered quietly through the room, breaking his concentration as she began to tell him of the last week.

"I got out of here for a bit. I somehow managed to convince Starscream that I needed a shower." He gave her a sidelong glance to which she raised her hands defensively and shook her head, " Don't ask. Anyway, we went back to the house to get supplies. I grabbed an extra phone and courtesy of a rancid sandwich, a warm cola and Barricade's Cannonball Run driving style... we had to pull over so that I could... well, get better."

She paused and pushed a stray hair out of her eyes. "I called Glenn between retches and had him trace the call." She stopped and looked up at him with a mischievous grin on her face and again, pushed the stray strand of hair out of the way, tucking it behind her ear.

"Knowing Glenn, we can be expecting the Calvary to arrive at any time." She raised an eyebrow, winked at him and flashed the grin again.

He put a finger on what is different about her. It's the confidence. Tina had been plenty confident before but this was a vibrating, quaking, force coming off of her. Before, she was in control of herself and now she was in control of so much more than that and it showed. She seemed almost larger than life for as small as she was. Her confidence was radiating and oddly enough, cheering him up even if it was a little bit unsettling in it's unfamiliarity.

She broke his concentration with a simple sentence,"When they arrive, be prepared." Her tone then turned slightly serious. "When the power goes out. Run."

Volt casted her another sidelong glance. She had learned enough to take out the entire facility? Now that was mind boggling even for him. "You're going to take out the whole facility?" Was she nuts?!

"Yes. It'll be hard but I'm positive I can do it. It'll weaken me so I won't be able to leave but you and Tohiro will." The sides of her mouth turned down slightly and the glint in her eye momentarily subsided. She sighed and brushed the stray hair out of her face again.

Is she insane?! He couldn't believe what she had just told him. "Why would we consider leaving without you? That leaves Starscream open to do whatever he wants. He'll have no leverage of us to use against you. _You_ won't have any protection. No. I won't agree to this." He wasn't about to leave her. It was his job to protect her even if she _was_ capable of defending herself. "I won't leave."

Tina sighed again and rubbed her face out of aggravation before dropping her arms down by her side, "Starscream won't do anything. If you guys go and don't try to save me or take me with you, it'll look like you _abandoned_ me to save your own hides. He'll try to use _that _as leverage against me to get me to work for him. You know? Try to pit me against you? I'll add in some well practiced drama and viola, I'm safe... for a while anyway. Just send someone to protect my family, they're watching them."

"No." He said stubbornly. There had to be more to this story than she was sharing be he didn't care, the entire stunt was madness.

"Volt, come _on_." She begged him, "I need to get everyone safe and sound where they need to be with the least amount of bloodshed. I mean... energon... shed" She giggled nervously and looked away again. She was definitely hiding something.

"Tina, spill it." He said calmly even if the pit in his reservoir is telling him to freak out and pop a gasket.

"Spill what?" she tried to act as innocent as possible, a move he can't help but find endearing.

"What ever it is you know or believe that you are hiding from me by acting as innocent as possible." Regardless of how he feels, he tried to sound as stern as possible.

She relaxed her shoulders a bit and rests her face in her hands, "Volt, please trust me. Please." She begged while looking up at him with wet eyes. The crying human female act usually will not have the same effect on a Cybertronian as it would have on a human male but seeing her that vulnerable, even for a tenth of a second, did cause his spark to sink a little. He hated to admit it but she's making him feel incredibly guilty.

"We... we... the Autobots... need to conserve resources..." She mumbled quietly while staring off with glassy and wet yes into nothingness again. She then blinked rapidly, smiled and chuckled as she wiped a stray tear away from her cheek.

"Tina?" She was acting really, really odd and somewhat erratic. He was beginning to find it unnerving.

She turned her attention sharply back to him, resting her hand back on his again. A calming energy radiated from her hand into his. Her face, on the other hand, displayed slight worry and a lot of stress, "I have to go. They're going to notice that I'm missing now." She slid down off of the platform and landed on her feet with a rough thud.

She was still holding back, he told himself._ Find out what? _"Tina. What else?" He asked, his voice a little sterner than he would have liked but considering her suddenly strange behavior, it seemed necessary.

"Go back. I'll be fine. Conserve resources. Get as many here as possible." She seemed rushed but still oddly distracted as if she was listening to something far away.

"Why?" He may have missed her, it may have been a while since he's seen her and he was so glad to have a chance too but this behavior is unsettling. He needed to know what it was that she wasn't sharing.

Tina fiddled with her pockets for a second before dropping her arms and leveling her gaze at him. She gave him a look so serious and so fearful that he felt his own energon chill.

"Because Shockwave is alive and well _and_ coming here...with an army." No sooner had she spoken the final word then had she passed through the plasma bars like a ghost through a wall. Her speed was so quick it was almost as if she hadn't even been there. The only sign that she had was the angry snapping and crackling the flickering bars were doing after she passed through, violently disrupting their field.

She was right, with news like that, he needed to get out of there. But how long would it take?

* * *

She felt terrible. She was so happy to see Volt, had so much more she wanted to tell him but it was that tingle up her spine and that feeling that something was squeezing her head that said it was time to go. She had only recently learned what that sensation was and knew that the only reason she could feel it was because of her unique physiology. The numerous enhancements added to her nervous system to dampen the effects of her abilities were what made it possible for her to be read. 

Unlike the feeling of being watched that she had experienced around Enigma, Soundwave always managed to make every nerve jump and tingle painfully. How the hell he had managed to extend his creepy reach was beyond her but she felt like no matter where she went inside of the big conductive antenna that was the metal walled Decepticon base, she wasn't safe from his reach. She had no idea if he was reading her or just searching but she sure as hell didn't want to be with Volt when he found her. That is precisely why she bolted when she did.

Tina was now running through the interconnecting and maze like hallways at a speed that would have made her high school track coach deeply proud of her.

With each pounding step she made she prayed that the Autobots would get there soon. She didn't see the light at the end of the tunnel but she knew it was out there somewhere, just beyond the reach of her vision.

She turned a corner and ran face first into reality, a tall, blue, silent reality who hid his face behind an eye shield and a face mask.

"Shit." She hissed angrily to herself, standing on guard, waiting for Soundwave to so something. He's stared motionlessly down at her, which was only adding to his creep factor. A few seconds passed before Tina relaxed a tiny bit as Soundwave towered over her seemingly frozen in place. Slowly, the silent Decepticon turned his head to the right as if he was listening to a sound that she could not hear. Tina strained to hear something, anything, but she only managed to hear the low hum of the base and the quiet sounds of the giant robot before her moving. She took a step backward, her hand behind her back, sparks dancing on her finger tips as she prepared to protect herself if necessary. No sooner did the energy in her start to build than did Soundwave turn away and slowly retreat down another passageway in the direction of where he had turned his head only a moment before.

"Oooo... kay. That was strange." She mumbled and dropped her hands to her sides feeling a slight bit confused. She looked around for any clue to the mech's odd behavior, seeing nothing, she continues her fast pace trek back to the lab. She only got as far as the next hallway when a low rumble vibrated through the floor below her. She quickened her pace and arrived at the door to the lab to see Tohiro inside in a state of panic or hurried joy.

"What's going on?" She said anxiously as she ran over to him.

"Help has finally come. A few minutes ago, something spun Starscream into a tizzy and they all took off outside. Then I heard the first boom." Tohiro smiled nervously at her as he gathered his notes. He and Tina had spoken of this moment many times since she had sent out her distress call to Glenn. She had been very adamant about what he was to do. At first he was reluctant but her plan had begun to make sense. Tina was sure she could do well on her own and he believed her.

"Yes!" She cheered as she helped him gather his things. "You remember everything I told you right?" She said as she stuffed a few stray discs into his case.

"Yes, Tina." He told her, looking over his glasses much like a parent scolding a child would and groaned out his response.

"Good." She tackled him with a hug. "Goodluck and god speed." She giggled raising an amused eyebrow at him. "When you're out of here, just run to safety. Hurry." She then shoved him out of the door.

For the first time in two weeks, she was all alone and in a now or never moment. _Oh god, Volt. Please just go. I need you to do this. Please. Alright, Tina girl, it's all or nothing._ The lab is in the center of the base giving her the perfect area in which to do what she is about too.

Tina stared up at the ceiling and began breathing in very deeply as she gathered the energy she would need to perform this feat. She'll need to loose her temper and then some to pull this off. She closed her eyes and thought about everything that had irked her, annoyed her or just put her in a foul mood lately. It was working but not enough. She concentrated harder, focusing on the Decepticons and everything she knew about them. She recalled the history she had read on specific battles, the first hand accounts of the Autobots, and what she had also witnessed. She imagined what things would be like if the Decepticons manage to complete their mission and rid the Earth of the vermin infestation as she's heard Starscream refer to the humans. She imagined a dead world drained of it's precious resources, the simple beauty of her planet reduced to graying skeletons of a world past. She feels the anger boiling inside of her; her vision becomes tunnel like when she opened her eyes. Just when she thought she could no longer take the horrid visions she had created in her head, it happened.

Her vision went white, the silence crept in and she fell back. Her anger surged through her in a blinding fury. She felt a if she was exploding and fell backwards to the floor. The last thing she saw was the room go dark. Tina collapsed to the floor, weak and shaking as exhaustion crawled over her. She knew it would work. She did what she needed to to let Volt escape. She prayed that he was okay and not injured by the blast. The sleepiness took over and she gave in to it. The darkness returned.

* * *

A strange zapping sensation ran through him at the same time that it went dark. Tina told him that he'd know when it was time. Judging by the fact that the bars had disappeared from the front of his cell and there was no light and no sound, it was the correct time. 

Volt activated his artificial lights and walked out of the room. He scanned the area for anything resembling an exit and found one not far from where he stood and he understood that time is of the essence. He did what any other Transformer in his position would do and it had been almost two weeks since he had a chance to do so.

The blue mech stepped out into the hallway and transformed, the sound of his small but powerful engine bounced of the walls as he rocketed towards freedom. He wasn't happy. Far from it to be exact. He was not comfortable with leaving Tina but she sounded so sure when she told him to go. So sure in fact that he felt compelled to partake her plan even if it did go against his judgment. He swore to himself as he turned down hall after hall, heading towards the exit on his scan, that he'll be back for her. He found the door that is supposedly, where the exit is. From the rocker panels on his side, two small missiles rose up, he aimed them at the doorway and blasted his way out.

Volt landed in a clearing that surrounded the Decepticon base and immediately took to the trees. He found cover in the thick forest and saw the welcome vision of the Autobot Calvary taking on the Decepticons at the 'Cons front door. It's one of the most welcoming sights that he'd seen in a long time. He only wished that Tina was with him to also bask in the glory of the moment. His thoughts settled from the joy of seeing his comrades combating the Decepticons to the friend he'd left inside and he began to regret his decision to listen to her as he made his way through the thick underbrush and woods towards the Autobots.

* * *

Not far from where Volt had made an explosive reentry into the outside world, a battle had unraveled. Far from prying human eyes and safe from the closest human residence a volley of missiles, lazers, plasma blasts and other various projectiles far too advanced for human engineering were being fired from wood to hardened structure. This wasn't a battle being fought for supremacy or to even kill but a battle being fought to distract. The Autobots had used this small attack, small considering that only a handful of their best fighters were present, to create enough of a distraction that two of their swiftest soldiers could accomplish the task of rescuing their human friends and fellow autobot inside. 

While streaks of plasma arched across the clearing that lead up to the cave mouth that marked the entry of the base, both of these soldiers used their agility and speed to find a way into the now vulnerable fortress. Arcee and Bumblee passed through the hallways in a pink and yellow blur as they made their way to where they believed their friends would be.

They had no sooner rounded a corner in one of the countless passageways and tunnels that made up the base when a sudden surge of power blackened the hall.

"Did you feel that?" Bumblee's voice broke the silence that permeated the now black passageway.

"Yep." No one could see the knowing smirk that crossed Arcee's face. "Listen." Off in the darkness, directly in front of them could be heard the sound of footsteps. Too small and too soft to be Decepticon, they had to be that of Tina or the Doctor. They both used infrared vision to peer into the inky darkness.

Only a few meters from where they had come to a halt, the Doctor slunk down the hallway. His back was too the wall and he used it for both support and a guide as he made his way towards the door. In one arm he clutched a pile of papers and a computer to his chest. His other hand fumbled in his pocket for something neither Autobot could see.

"Doctor Tanaka?" Bumblee called out quietly in an electronic sounding whisper at the frazzled man. "Doctor!" He added a bit more frantically than his last.

"W-who? Bumble Bee?" Tohiro found what he was looking for in his pocket, a small LED flashlight and shone it in the direction of the voice.

"Ow!" Bee hissed, looking way from the light in the doctor's hand. The sudden flash of light momentarily blinded his infrared optics. "Turn that off. We can see you. We'll come to you. Augh." He groaned at the stinging sensation in his optics.

Both Autobot's approached slowly. Bumblee opened his doors, turning on his interior lights so that the doctor could see better. "Get in."

"Doctor, where's Tina?" Arcee asked with concern peppering her ever word.

"She's straight ahead, Arcee. She made a blast to knock all of the sensors and controls off line. She wanted to make it so that Volt could escape. She had it all planned." Tohiro's voice trailed off as he bent his head in worry over Tina. "A blast that large has probably knocked her unconscious." He added picking his head up slightly and running a nervous, shaking hand through his disheveled hair.

"Okay. I'll go on and get her. 'Bee take the Doctor back." Arcee paused for only a second before asking, "Doctor, you said she wanted Volt to escape?"

"Yes. She had it all planned. She had just come back from talking to him when I heard the first explosion up on the surface." His voice had begun to level out and no longer held the sound of worry.

"'Cee, go. I have him. Go get her. Knowing Volt he probably made one hell of an escape anyway." Bee sounded concerned but entertained at the thought of his friend's ability to turn anything, no matter how dangerous into an extreme sport. The yellow Camaro reversed with flourish and sped of in the direction from which they had just came.

Alone in the dark hallway, Arcee stood dwarfed by the height of the unseen walls but could feel them closing in and the clock ticked. Inhaling a deep breath through her intake she hurried down the hall in the direction from where the Doctor had come and had motioned to before. She prayed that at the end of that hall, Tina would be unharmed. Her infrared vision turned into a tunnel as she focused on one thing, saving Tina at any cost.

* * *

Tina Littorio laid in a heap on the floor of the laboratory. She had been too deeply unconscious to hear the sound of large, yet still small feet enter into the room. She was too far gone in psychic shock to feel the too big to be human hands gently lift her off of the laboratory floor. She was too limp and weak to respond to the same hands holding her closely to her as the being whom had picked her up searched for a fast way to escape. 

Tina had also been too far gone to notice the taller being materialize behind her saviour.

Luckily, she hadn't been awake to share in the fright that made the angel of salvation jump a good three vertical feet off of the ground.

"What the?!" Arcee swore into the shadows behind her.

"Give her to me, Arcee. It only makes sense." a mech's voice said behind her.

Arcee carefully clutched the unconscious Tina closer to her, protectively, as she peered into the darkness trying to distinguish the outline before her and place the voice.

"No." She said as angrily and as venomously as she could muster considering her concern for the weakened human in her arms.

An exasperated sigh pierced the air followed by a shuffling of feet in her direction. "'Cee, Unlike you, I have a passenger seat. I also have the ability to go unseen. _Now_, will you dispense with the bull and let me take her outside to safety?" A taller figure stepped into her field of vision, lit by the infrared light in Arcee's optics.

Mirage held his hands out expectantly at Arcee who still clutched Tina to her chest.

"Where the hell did you come from? No." The pink femme questioned him with an accusatory tone.

"The same place as you, 'Cee. Now we don't have time. Either you try to make it out of here on your own with one weak, limp, possibly injured human and try not to be seen by one of Starscream's lackeys or you giver her to me and all three of us stand a pretty good chance of making it out of here alive and in all of our respective pieces." Mirage looked bored yet concerned all at once. Not an easy task considering there was a prelude to war being fought just meters away on the other side of 5cm thick metal.

Arcee lessened her grip on Tina, aware that she was squeezing the carbon and protein based girl a little too tightly. She considered Mirage's statement for a second before eying him suspiciously and voicing it so.

"And I should trust you why? Where the pit have you been, Mirage? No one has heard a single transmission from you in ages and then you just miraculously appear on Earth and in the Decepticon base, none the less. How do I know you aren't just trying to keep her for Starscream? Working for him now that Megatron is out of the way?" She narrowed her optics at him and took a step backwards, intent on not handing Tina to him.

Mirage rubbed his brow ridge, looked at the floor and sigh irritatedly, "Arcee, can you name any instance in which I have been found guilty of consorting with the Decpticons? I mean really. I can't recall one. I also can't think of any information that might be able to back up such a claim. Does spying on_ them_ make me an enemy to my own?"

The small pink femme looked at the floor as she muttered a weak, "No."

"Well then?" Mirage questioned holding his hand out to her for Tina. He then transformed into a form of a beautiful blue and white McLaren F1, all lights on his dashboard lighting to gain the small pink femme's attention.

Arcee stepped forward and carefully placing Tina in the cockpit of the blue and white car. "If you so much as hurt a hair on her head, I will detach your intake manifold painfully using my bare hands." She glared angrily at him while simultaneously staring protectively at the limp human in his cockpit.

"She'll be safe, 'Cee, relax." His disembodied voice called out to her as he disappeared in a fog of unfocused background, the telltale sound of his engine starting up in a high pitched whine of power and sped off towards freedom. The musical sound of his exhaust reverberating down the hallway as he sped off towards the freedom of the outside.

Arcee hung her head in worry for only a split second before transforming back into her alternative form of a turbo Buell Thunderbolt. She prayed with each passing meter that life on the other side would be a little less full of surprises for at least the next few days if not weeks.

She also hoped that she hadn't just made one huge life altering mistake for Tina.


	15. New suit new issues

well, it's been a while. I've had lots of ideas for Tina and Volt but most of them are past this point. So this point was a bit hard to get to. I hate bridging stuff. School is over and I'm headed back overseas for a while. That should give my mind lots of time to get this story rolling again.

Maelstrom and Rathor are my creations. Arcee is pissed as always.

* * *

Things had been pretty normal since Tina, Volt and Dr. Tanaka had returned. Life with the Autobots went on as normal with patrols and scouting taking up most of the time. Overall, things had remained quiet again but they were almost too quiet this time. Tina knew that Starscream was not going to come looking for her. He would not repeat the same mistake twice. The relative silence of the Decepticons had been at best good for creating stress. As Enigma would constantly say, "it's not a retreat, it's a regroup. When a 'Con is silent, he's just trying to think of a better way to kill you, how to strike you at your core or basically, how to piss you off the most. A silent 'Con is a deadly 'Con. Now is the time to prepare yourself." So the Autobots had begun to think of every possible move that Starscream could make next and prepare. The silence was deafening.

Tina and Prowl had gotten into many discussions about Starscream's possible next move that would turn into debates which in turn would become rather heated arguments. She was shocked a few times to find out exactly how loud an angry robot who was three times her size could actually get. The other Autobots where surprised to find out that Tina wouldn't back down from him either. She would just continue with the "glorious aft ripping" as Volt had started to refer to her occasional verbal defense assaults on the military strategist. They would verbally badger one another until both were so angry that they would just part in silence. It had become a well known fact that Tina did not care for him any more than did some of the Autobots. Unlike them, she felt absolutely no need to comply to any request of his and would usually answer any command with a flick of her middle finger. As a result of the friction between the two, when Prowl was living up to his name, she would hide out in Wheeljack's lab working on something that only she and the scientist were privy to.

For a few weeks she had spent more and more time working on a project of which she had kept the strictest silence. Even Volt had no idea what it was but there she was once more, hunched over her project on one of Wheelsjack's lab tables. Tina blew a lock of stray hair out of her face. It had grown enough that she had it cut and died it to a complete black this time around. She stopped, stood up and stretched, pulling a headband out of her back pocket and pushed it on to hold back her hair. "Okay, I've gotten to the point that the little ones hurt too much. I need a break."

"Hurt? How?" Wheeljack asked, turning away from an imager that hung down from the ceiling just above the table.Tina pulled off one of her black gloves, wincing as she did so, looking carefully at the palm of her left hand, rubbing her fingers together and grimacing before turning the open end of the glove towards the light and peering inside. Frustrated, she rolled her eyes and held her left hand which clutched the offending glove up. "Look, the contacts are poking the crap out of me. There's no way I'll be able to hold anything without feeling like I'm grabbing hold of a porcupine."

Wheeljack looks carefully at her hand and made a very quiet harrumph. "Let me take a look. Please, Tina, put the glove down."

"K." Tina sat back down and placed the glove on the table top. She curiously watched on as Wheeljack's right index finger tip opened up and a dozen or so small, spindly, finger like attachments begin to work at the connectors on the inside of the glove. Tina bent her head sideways watching them and knitted her eyes at Wheeljack.

The mech stopped briefly and gave her a side ways glance before murmuring a slightly distracted, "What?"

Tina pointed at his hand as her eyes widened and trying to force herself not to smile, "I just never get used to that." Wheeljack didn't answer and continues to look at her with what she could guess was a blank stare. She giggled and waved her hands, "Don't take this the wrong way, but Cybertronians are like walking Swiss Army Knives."

"Okay." Wheeljack nodded with a slight expression of confusion and continued to work on the glove.

Tina watched as each of the small attachments worked carefully under the leather of the glove, fixing the small metal spikes that join the metal tabs to the leather fabric with a skill that even the best workers on Earth could never match. She watched until she felt as if she was moving into a trance when Wheeljack stopped his work.

"Tina, while I'm finish this, I want you to try something I've been working on."

"Sure, what is it?" She asked with genuine curiosity.

Wheel jack didn't answer immediately as he adjusted the small tabs on the gloves, his optics narrowing as he did so. Upon finished he sat back up and pointed towards a wall in the dark, rear of the room. "In the closet along that wall, you'll find a black blue box. Pull it out and bring it here, I'll guide you through what I want you to do." He picked up the next glove and began to work on it.

Tina stood up from the table and climbed down with a spring in her step. Wheeljack pretended not to notice as the lights seems to burn just a few watts lighter as she passed by them on her way to the closet. For a minute Tina disappeared inside, when she reemerged with the blue box in her hands a curious smile graced her small face. He focused on the small glove before him but did not fail to notice the near sparkling like quality that she radiated as she climbed back up on the table and sat down cross legged with the blue box resting in her lap. The curiosity in her face was undeniable, it was paining her to see what was inside.

"Open it." He said as he finished on the last tabs that covered the index finger.

Tina gave him a curious side long glance as she opened the box up and pulled out a black motorcycle helmet identical to the one she wore while riding her R1. "Oh. Kay?" she muttered inspecting the helmet.

Wheeljack held up his free hand for a moment as he finished with her glove in his other. He turned the tiny glove over in his massive palm, admiring it's delicate workmanship both human and Cybertronian alike before turning back to her,"Cllimb down and put the helmet on."

Tina bit her lip as she did as he requested and both of her feet touched the floor. She turned the helmet around in her hand, shooting momentary glances over to the identical black helmet on the chair in a corner by one of Wheeljack's numerous work benches. She nodded and raised her eyebrows, shooting the scientist a quick, trustful glance before sliding the sleek, black helmet over her equally sleek, black hair.

The helmet had a tinted visor, something Tina was unfamiliar with as her typical helmet had a clear visor. She looked around and nothing seemed different except that it seemed just a tiny bit heavier than her usual helmet. "Wheeljack?"

He held up a finger as he adjusted something on one of the monitors above her. Wheeljack's lab closely resembled Ratchet's. Tina had learned this was because often the Scientist and the CMO would work together on projects and having the same set up meant that both mech's could work at their optimal efficiency. Wheeljack typed something in the keyboard adjacent the monitor and Tina jumped back and fuzzy, blue, imagery popped up on the visor before her eyes.

"Whoa!" She exclaimed as she stared in awe at the blue fuzz on the screen. The fuzz adjusted itself to her vision and she saw before her what looked an awful lot like the HSIs on the virtual pilot games she played in high school. She noticed that the measurements were in meters and relative to her height. A soft hissing in her ears subsided as Wheeljack's voice spoke to her loud and clear, not as if it were buffered by an inch and a half of foam cushioning.

"Can you hear me clearly, Tina?" He said with genuine concern

"Yeeeeeaaaah," She said in equally genuine concern, "Um.. what's this?" She looked up at Wheeljack and lost balance as she looked up at him. Upon the visor a height finding bar appeared telling Tina that Wheeljack's height was approximately 6.70 meters. He moved towards her and the range finder told her each meter and centimeter he covered closing the distance between them. She held her hands up to center herself. In the left hand corner of the visor, his name name appeared. She was frozen in disbelief.

"Tina," Wheeljack said as he bent down and studied the helmet on her head, "I used your motorcycle helmet as a cast and replicated its appearance for this using a carbon Kevlar composite. It is twice as safe as your helmet, allowing for extended protection in the unfortunate situation that you are separated from your motorcycle. I'll explain safety features in a moment. What you're probably seeing and understanding right now is a triple display of range, height and my designation. If you look in the very top of the display, you'll see your coordinates. You can cycle through features using your ability to command electrical items around you. What you don't see are the templar and frontal probes that ease communication in these lobes of your brain.

Tina focused on Wheeljack's name and took a startled step back as a quick bio similar to that in the Autobot's records, of him popped up on the screen. She asked, "Wheeljack is this connected to Teletraan-1?"

"Yes, I take it you pulled up a file." He stood up and crossed his arms.

"Yeah. I pulled up yours." She speed read through his profile, shocked at what she saw, "I think you're the most heavily armed scientist I've ever met." She chuckled softly.

"Well, this is a war after all."

"And to think most of the scientists I know of are liberal college professors."

Wheeljack couldn't help but laugh at her candor, "Lets go outside and try it."

Tina nodded but not before stopping just short of the table beside her, "Shouldn't I try all of it?"

Wheeljack nodded and gingerly picked up the gloves from the table and handed them to her. She smiled as she pulled them on and walked towards the door, pulling up and zippering the remaining body suit as she did so.

* * *

"Holy shit! This is amazing!" Tina exclaimed as she returned on the R1 back to where Wheeljack awaited after having made a few up and back runs on the bike. She felt like a kid in a candy store or an adrenaline junkie in the best amusement park in the world. She was fully dressed in her all black riding gear which was now impregnated with platinum tabs that connected with her skin and directed the energy where ever she needed it with effortless ease. Tina held her hands parallel in front of her as a spark started between the two dancing across her finger tips before centering in her palm and shooting out to the other hand. Soon the spark grew to a bolt of electricity that bounces and arched between her hands like a wild snake, writhing and wriggling in her grasp. Tina pulled back her right hand and threw it forward as if she was throwing a frisbee. From her fingers escaped a small bold of electricity that travelled down the flight line before them before fizzling out into the air.

"The directional control of this is astounding, Wheeljack. Great idea" She gave him a very enthusiastic thumbs up.

"How's the helmet?" he asked standing above her with arms crossed and one hand on his chin.

"Great. Snug enough, not too hot. The heads up display in here is amazing. Is it me or does the range finder follow my gaze?" She moved her hand in front of her focusing on the small spark that she had created on her finger tip.

"It does."

"Cool. God, I can not wait to show this to Volt." Tina looked off to the west towards the setting sun and then looked upwards to the darkening evening sky. She leaned forward and grabbed the accelerator with her right hand and lowered the shield on her mask with her left before giving the engine of her bike a quick rev, the smooth growl of the black bike filling the air.

"Watch this." She said to Wheeljack as she turned the bike back down the flight line and rocketed off into the darker distance. Wheeljack watched as her departure was marked with the blue lights of the runway markers turning off in her wake, fading into the distance. A moment passed as the blue lights again lit up as she raced towards him. As she drew closer the blue lights reflected off of her all black bike, suit and helmet creating what a human would car eerie and a Cybertronian would only raise an optic ridge too.

Tina stopped the bike and removed the helmet, the magnetic connectors between the helmet base and the high back collar of her jacket making a smooth snap as they released one another. She shook her hair out and glanced back towards the hangar, noting the flurry of activity that had just come to be just passed the fence line that separated the flight line side from the operations side of the base. She turned her attention back to Wheeljack who had just noticed the same, "Cool huh?"

"Interesting trick." He nodded before turning back to what was going on a half mile away from them near the parking lot of the hangar. "Maybe we should head back. I think..."

He was cut off by the unmistakable sound of Thundercracker's engines approaching. Both Tina and Wheeljack noticed something else not hidden by the thunderous roar of the blue jet's engines. The sound of another jet in distress. The hairs on the back of Tina's neck stood on end to the terrible sound of a weak motor straining to keep several thousand pounds of metal above the Earth.

"I think... we should move." Wheeljack said transforming and racing off towards the safe distance of the hangar's tarmac.

Tina popped her helmet back on her head and tore off in the same direction just in time as Thundercracker didn't even wait to land before transforming, skidding to a halt in the grass between ramps, kicking up dirt and rocks all over one of the north ramps. Behind him Enigma appeared to limp in air one engine fighting to keep the jet airborne and the other sputtering flames. Even in the dimming light of the sky and at the safe distance to which she and Wheeljack had retreated, Tina could see the heavily damaged tail section of Enigma's alt mode.

Enigma landed intact but powered down immediately, transforming into a lump on the ground. The black femme struggled but managed to stand up as both Thundercracker and Wheeljack raced towards her. She only remained on her feet for a second before collapsing. Tina stood back unsure of what to do as she watched energon stream down the femmes leg and from her upper intake area.

"Tina!" a voice shouted from the hangar. "Tina get in here now. Big problems."

Tina turned in a daze to see Arcee behind her.

She parked her bike by the door and looked back towards Wheeljack and Thundercracker who were carrying what seemed to be a barely coherent Enigma.

"It's Volt, Tina. He's hurt bad." Arcee broke her concentration.

The blood seemed to drain from Tina's face and her whole body went numb as she took off in a mad sprint, still wearing her suit and helmet, towards the open door and then the med bay.

* * *

Tina burst through the door to the med bay and stared in shock as Ratchet and Ironhide lifted Volt's still form up on to the table. If at all possible, he seemed less blue. She looked down and noticed the size of the energon drops that had fallen from him onto the floor. Arcee leaned over and gently pulled Tina aside as Wheeljack and Thundercracker brought an equally still Enigma into the bay.

"Over there," Ratchet said as he pointed towards the table directly beside the one Volt was on. The CMO looked up from taking Volt's vitals and said with urgency, "'Jack, I need you. You too, 'Hide." Both mechs nodded, Wheeljack leaning over to check Enigma's vitals. Bluestreak stood in a corner looking no less worried than anyone else even though he clutched his arm which seemed to have a steady leak of mixed fluids, all of which glowing a sickly dark purple as they mixed with energon.

"I need all non-pertinent personnel out now." Ratchet said with utter seriousness crossing his face. "Everyone."

Arcee nodded and ushered a stunned Tina out of the room.

The femme and the girl walked in silence down the hall. Tina stopped half way between the rec room and the med bay and leaned against a wall, taking off her helmet and sighed. "Arcee, what's going on? What happened out there? No calls. Nothing."

"Lets go sit, 'Teen."

"Fine. But I need explanations." It felt odd telling a being that was nearly twice her size and more than a thousand times her age that she needed explanations but that's how things were. She did.

Arcee and Tina made their way to the recroom where both grabbed seats. Here Tina laid down her helmet and removed her suit. She laid down on the couch in a tee-shirt and shorts that were as black as her suit and bike. She rubbed her face and then stared at her tattooed left arm. "What happened out there? I thought you were on a routine patrol."

"Skywarp, Ramjet and two unknowns happened." Arcee said flatly looking at the floor.

"Not to name a few names and faces that we didn't recognize." A voice said from the doorway.

Arcee stood up with vile anger in her optics as Mirage stepped through the door. She pointed her finger with nothing but pure hatred. "And where the pit were _you_? Huh? You're supposed friends are out there getting slaughtered by a surprise attack by the Con's and you're no where to be seen. You were on patrol too. What were you doing? _Planning_ the whole damned thing?"

Tina could swear that if an Autobot was capable of spitting or had balls, Arcee would have just kicked Mirage in the balls and spat on him while he wriggled in pain. In a split second, Arcee surprised Tina even more as she raised a rather small but threatening looking weapon at Mirage.

"Arcee, no need to get crazy." Mirage said with a coolness that made Tina want to give him a jolt.

"My friends are injured and could possibly not pull through this while your questionable aft runs around unscathed. I'm giving you 3 Earth minutes to answer me or I'm going to take matters into my own hands."

Mirage snorted at her thread,"You should see what Maelstrom and Rathor got to deal with after you all left." He said as he casually sat down in the sofa that Arcee had gotten up from to threaten him.

"Is _that_ who those two were?" Arcee's optics flared with hatred again. She shook her head and mumbled, "I should have known." She raised the weapon back up to him again, "Explain."

Mirage leaned back in the chair and crossed one leg over another. _Cocky and full of himself,_ Tina thought as she watched the blue and white mech bask in his own personal idea of glory. "Decepticons don't have a CMO like we do. Even with the amount of repair that they are capable of, those two will be out of commission for a while. A few well placed servo inhibitors, and nitro packets will wreak havoc on a mech who doesn't have a good medic."

Arcee lowered her weapon and appeared to lighten up. "_Where_ did you place the nitro packets?"

"Where it counts."

Arcee snorted and subspaced her weapon. "You redeemed yourself with that move. That takes gears, specially for a mech. That's something you'd expect from a half crazed and jilted femme."

"Speaking from experience?"

Arcee narrowed her optics at him and started towards him before Tina's small voice chimed in.

"Anyone mind sharing with me what the hell went on out there? I mean, you know... since my best friend looks like he's half dead? I mean, just a shot in the dark will help."

Neither Mirage or Arcee seemed keen on answering quickly. Taking note from Arcee's show of force against Mirage, Tina formed two plasma orbs in her now bare hands and gave both a menacing look past the snapping blue-white glow of the balls of energy. "I can play Arcee's game. You may be bigger, but this is all I need to inhibit _both_ of your servos. Talk."

Arcee's bottom jaw flopped open in disbelief as Mirage just chuckled. "Maybe she was with the 'Cons too long... seems something rubbed off. A little... Starscream maybe?"

Tina threw one ball at Mirage but held her hands up stopping it just shy of his face, causing the mech to lean back a bit more. "Keep talking smack and I'll show you exactly how much I learned, " she said with enough coolness to chill energon.

Arcee smirked and chuckled at Mirage's obvious discomfort before turning back to Tina still smiling, "You've learned well, grasshopper. Blue, Volt, Mirage and I were patrolling. Well, I was along to battle the boredom. It was Blue and Volt's patrol, Mirage is still learning routes. E' and T.C. were just doing whatever it is the two of them do all day up there. Anyway, we noticed a dark gray 'Vette and a very large looking Silverado tailing us at a distance. I circled around to follow them. E' gets on the com link and says something about Skywarp and Ramjet and decides to play who has the bigger tailhook. Next thing I know, the 'Vette and the truck take off and chase Blue, Volt and Mirage. I'm in pursuit then it all becomes a nightmarish blur. It's like the Fast and the Furious with them chasing us. E and T.C. are on the radio apparently in some sort of dogfight with Skywarp and Ramjet but now they're on the defensive just like us."

Arcee paused and looked away for a moment as if trying to pull the memory or find the words to say, "Tina, Volt just wasn't fast enough. Maelstrom caught him like a fish in a bowl and Rathor was like a demented kid with a flair for violence. Blue came back and I caught up but not before they were trying to turn him into an MP3 player. They hurt him... bad. Blue and I did enough to get them off and pull Volt away. Thundercracker calls a distress and says they're heading back. Maelstrom and Rathor take off but now we have to get Volt back and he's injured. Real bad. I managed to call back as soon as it happened and thankfully Ratchet and Ironhide weren't too far away."

"I'm sorry." Arcee added as she sank back down into a chair.

Tina says nothing as she lays back down on the sofa and crosses a tattooed arm over her face. Silent tears start to stream down her covered cheeks. The one person...being that she needs right now could be on the verge of dying and there's nothing she can do. Through her tears she hears Bluestreak come into the room and say something very quietly to Arcee.

Arcee's voice answers back quietly, "They're playing for keeps now... Upped the stakes and so will we."


	16. Lost

Tina is back again and coming of age with her powers. I'm hoping to close this part of the story soon and move into a different volume of it that is brighter even in the face of darkness. The last few chapters have been her learning to crawl before she can walk, walking and stumbling, getting up and trying to run. Now, she's dusting off her knees and lacing up her running shoes.

This chapter was influenced by Coldplay's song Lost.

* * *

She had fallen asleep again. The one draw back to holding on to and expending so much energy was that she now fell into a near death sleep whenever she was overspent. Tina was unaware that she was sprawled out on the couch, as if she was attempting to cover every horizontal and squished vertical surface with a lanky body part. She was even more unaware of the drool trailing from her gaping mouth onto the couch's fawn fabric.

Would a human have walked into the room, she surely would have been embarrassed. Instead, a tall blue robot walked in. Not the tall blue robot that either she or you would be expecting but an equally vivacious soul.

"Tina." Bluestreak said bending down, taking care to not jostle his injured arm any more and gently touching her leg. "Tina, wake up."

"mmmph." She mummered from under the cover of a tattoo covered arm that was draped luxuriously across her eyes. "Wha...?"

Blue gingerly nudged her leg again with one of his massive fingers and spoke in a low urging voice, "Tina, come on. Get up."

Tina rubbed at her eyes and then squinted from the dimmed but still bright overhead lights. She wiped the drool from her mouth and managed a slightly slurred," Vol... Blue, what's going on?"

Bluestreak stood up and pointed away from the room that they were in. "Ratchet is finished for now. I can take you to the Med bay but we have to go now and we have to be back before he's finished recharging."

Tina had never been a morning person. Even with the random hours she had been keeping for the last year, waking up was always her most vulnerable time of day. This is when her sluggish klutziness is at it's peak. She swung her bare legs down and bent over at her waist searching for her flip flops. She searched for a moment through her sleepy eyes and slowly responding hands to find them pushed slightly under the sofa. Groaning tiredly, she pulled them out and slipped them on while simultaneously shrugging a black Bob Marley sweatshirt on and getting caught up in the shirt for a moment before finally settling into it.

She paused to wake up a bit more and stared up at the blue mech before her. He was taking it easy on his weakened side and she could see the discomfort but all that remained of his energon leaking injury was a smooth scar. Even after all this time of being around them, Tina was still amazed at how fluidly a living machine could move, how gentle they could be and how even though their exterior would not show much to the untrained eye, how deeply emotional and thoughtful they are. _Well, when you live for millions of years, it would only make sense to be that way,_ was the thought in her head as she watched the minute changes in Blue's face. He would wince just the tiniest bit if he moved a little more than he should have. The pain evident in the lightening fast flickering in his optics and the tiny movements he made as he tried to baby his injured side.

"How are you feeling, Blue?" Tina's gravely but kind, just-woken-up-voice asked as she wiped the last bits of sleep from her right eye.

Bluestreak followed her eyes to his side and tried to hide the pain in his voice, "I've had better but I'll be fine. Ratchet fixed me up just right. Come on." He gestured for her to follow with a fluid wave of the hand on his good arm. The large scar throbbed with a dull pain. He had refused to divert power away from the sensors on that side because, he had told Ratchet earlier in the med bay,"the pain reminds me that I'm still alive to fight another fight..." as he watched two of his friends in stasis on the tables across the room.

"Does it hurt?" Her voice broke through his thoughts..

"It did. Ratchet took care of it. Now I don't feel anything but some pressure." He lied to her, not turning to face her knowing she'd see the truth in his face. One thing Tina had gotten extremely good at since she had started spending so much time with them all was that she could read their faces. Bumble bee once tried to cover up for Volt, while the blue mech was making a gift for her birthday, by lying to her. Bee had only lasted about 3 minutes under Tina's scrutiny until she managed to get the partial truth out of him. Once he told her about Volt's activities, she backed off, not willing to spoil the surprise.

Because she had learned how to read their faces so well, they learned that keeping talk to a minimum and definitely not letting her see your face was just about the only protection you would have to keep your secrets safe.

"You're alive." Her voice squeaked behind him. She managed a lop sided grin as she padded behind him to the med bay, her flip flops keeping a slapping beat as they walked.

"That's what I said," he added as he walked ahead of her down the now darkened hallway. He still tried his hardest not to give his pain away.

Blue stopped just shy of the door, turned around and squatted down as low as he could so that she wouldn't have to strain her neck looking up as much. "Look, Teen, they'll look offline but they're not. Both of them are in stasis. Don't... don't freak out when you see them." No need to cover up now. This was the truth.

Tina leveled her half awake gaze at Bluestreak and attempted a tired smile that came out more like a grimace. "Blue, whatever I do in there, I have to. Please understand that."

Blue stood up with resolve in his posture. "I'll just leave you alone."

This time Tina managed a small smile as she stretched, cracking her toes and willing her body to wake up."Thanks, Blue."

"No problem, little sis." This time he managed a pain free, true smile at her.

Tina grinned up at him, obviously a bit more awake. Bluestreak had a personality that just begged for you to love him. Ever the nervous Nancy, Blue had become like a big brother to her. His will to open himself up to others replacing the need to hide themselves that her actual brothers had the horrible habit of doing. Blue stepped aside as the doors opened to the massive and dark med bay and allowed her to walk in alone.

Tina stepped across the threshold and felt the temperature drop. She knew that this was to aid in the repair process but the darkness of the room which was only lit by the one light above each examination table, added to the eerie atmosphere. She heard nothing but the soft whir of the overhead air conditioners and the scanners that recorded every spike in Enigma and Volt's processors. Tina slowly walked forward to the space between both tall tables and looked up from one to the other. No ambient energy bled out from either being. Both were still, like coma patients. She knew enough about comas to know that that's pretty much what both were in. A massive robot version of a coma.

She heard nothing, felt nothing from either and so pulled a chair over and carefully climbed up onto the table that Volt laid upon.

She clutched her way up and finally, threw her legs over the side coming to rest by his shoulder. Not satisfied, she climbed up onto the mech's chest and sat down. For a minute, Tina only stared and listened. With her hands barely grazing the metal of Volt's chest as she sat cross legged upon him, she attempted to search with her finger tips for the energy that he usually gave off, not finding even the weakest electronic pulse. A single tear formed down on her cheek.

She turned to look behind her at the damage he had suffered. Ratchet had done his best and she knew this. If necessary, the CMO would cannibalize a piece of his own armor to save another Autobot. Volt's missing appendages had been found and saved but apparently were in too bad a condition to reattach. Tina looked around her at the battered remains of her friend and felt a sob catch in her throat.

She turned her gaze back to his still face. His optics were not lit with the vibrant blue that usually stared back at her. Gone were the tiny movements of various accessory rods and louvers that displayed the emotions she had learned to read. Now in their place laid the still remains of her closest friend. The sob broke free and covered her face with her hands, hopelessly wanting to stop what she couldn't control.

She didn't want to cry, not like this. Not like all hope was lost. Rivers of tears ran down her reddening cheeks and dropped onto her over sized sweatshirt creating dark, empty stains on the black fabric. She tried her damnedest to catch her breath and slow herself down. Right now she needed control. Loosing control of herself wouldn't help Volt, Enigma or herself. None the less, a random fight with her emotions that would create a rogue discharge that, in turn, could create more problems.

Tina breathed slowly and redirect both her sadness and the growing anger inside of her. When her heart finally slowed down and the tears stopped, she wiped her face with the ends of her sleeves and began to whisper hoarsely through the hands covering mouth.

"It's because of me. It's all because of me." She said reaching forward and touching his chin with her small hand. "If you had never met me, you'd be whole. You wouldn't be lying on this damned table, stuck in a loop of dreams." She stared upon the still face of him looking for anything. Wondering what he saw or heard or what he could be dreaming about or if he even did dream in this state.

"Why did they do this to you? Why? What could you have possibly done to deserve this? I don't understand...Why dammit?" she angrily called out staring up as if to curse a god that could allow such pain on anything that he may have created. Be it man or machine, a soul is a soul and she couldn't feel Volt's.

Tina climbed down onto the table and walked up to the side of Volt's face, standing only a foot or so from his audio receptors. She raised her hands up and laid them on the side of his face attempting to push all of the emotional energy she could into him so that he knew, deep down inside where the mind goes when the body gives out, that she was there.

"I know you can hear me in there somewhere, Volt." She softly rubbed her hand down the side of his face, "I'm going to fix this. Somehow, I'm going to make this right. I swear on all that is holy on your world, mine and all of those in between, I will right this. They will pay even if I loose myself in the process."

She bent her head down and turned slightly away from him as raised her voice, "I think I finally understand you, Enigma. Not fully. I don't think that I ever could understand that much or that really anyone ever will. But enough to understand just one of the things that drives you."

She rested her head against the usually warm, but now cold metal of his cheek plate, "Volt, you are my best friend. You know me better than any human ever has or possibly ever will. I love you. No more secrets. No more daring surprises. You deserve better and when you wake up from this hell, and it will be better, I swear. I swear. God..." She fell down and let the racking sobs take over her again. "I swear."

Across from Volt, on the other cold, steel table laid a femme who had many millennia ago become very well versed at faking her own death. Faking her own stasis was a breeze compared to convincing others that she was dead. Enigma listened in the quiet to what Tina had said to Volt and couldn't help but smile inside her own mind. As strange as the relationship was between the human girl and the Autobot, it was something that both seemed to require to maintain their health and sane balance. It was at this moment that she felt the need to reassess her own life.

Enigma would have sighed out in frustration if it would nave not given her true state away. She remained silent and unmoving wondering what it would take for her to find such a feeling again. Returning to her past or forging a new future? She was unsure and felt the trouble growing in her spark. She pulled her consciousness back down as she heard Tina speak up again.

"While you're sleeping, Volt, I will talk to someone about options. I won't be long. I'll only be as long as necessary. This stalemate with the 'cons needs to end. I need to be more active. I feel like kid wielding a BB gun in the middle of a war zone. Please understand. I want you all to have a home here. Even if it means finally being called an adult and handed a real weapon."

Tina wiped at her eyes again and scooted towards the end of the table, swinging her legs over the side. The soft sounds of Tina's feet touching the floor as she jumped down from the table echoed through the large cavernous room and were followed by the sound of them stopping just short of the table that Enigma laid upon.

"Enigma, when the time comes and you're back with us, I'm going to need your help. If I can count on anyone to lead me down the right path, I know it's you. I have faith in your ability to kick ass and take names when a knock on the door just won't suffice. Femme, whatever form of revenge you have in that mind of yours, I want in on it" Tina's voice trailed off, dripping with anger, as she moved back from the table.

"I will make this right. If it's not the end, it's the means to one." She held back another sob and let a deep sigh escape her lips. "Volt, I need you." Tina whispered as she softly padded her way to the door and out into the hall. "I need both of you to light my way in this hour of need."

* * *

Tina stopped just outside of the door and hid in the shadows that formed between the beams of light. The hallway lights were darkened every night after eleven as a way to remind the skeleton crew of human staff that worked in the building from time to time that it was night time outside since there were no windows in the converted hangar.

The tall, dark haired girl leaned up against the wall and chewed on her right index nail as she contemplated her next move. What she needed to do right now was clear her mind. She felt another flair of her temper as the mental image of Volt and Enigma lying on the tables, motionless and almost lifeless and Bluestreak nursing his damaged side.

She pushed herself off of the wall and pulled her hood up as she headed back to the recroom with her next move fresh in her mind.

* * *

Tina felt as if she was loosing her mind. She looked down at the speedometer on the bike and balked at her speed. She was loosing her mind or at least the good sense not to test how long she could last living on the edge.

It was early morning and compared to normal, no one was on the road. It would still be another two or three hours before the first early commuters would even climb out of bed to the smell of their coffee makers brewing what they needed to start the day. Instead, they all rested comfortably in their beds, oblivious to what went on in the wee hours of the morning just outside of their windows.

She thanked God for that fact as she pulled back on the accelerator and went faster. The world around surrendered itself to her speed. Single points of light now blossomed into bright streaks and the asphalt sped by so fast that if she didn't look directly, the dotted white line would look solid.

The wind felt good as it rushed past her helmet and over her leathers. The purr of the bike's motor beneath her almost numbed her thoughts. She didn't take her eyes off of the road ahead even for a split second and became oblivious to everything except what lied ahead. It was almost as if life was enacting a metaphor for where it was headed. Nothing in the past mattered, only what waited for her in the future

_Keep on trucking,_ she thought and laughed.

An unexpected flash in her rear view mirror caught her attention, causing her to release her grip on the accelerator and slow down just a bit. She was still on the crazy end of the speed spectrum but now she was more on the verge of logic crazy.

_Nothing should be going this fast except stupid asses like me, a cop or..._ she thought as she squinted at the mirror quickly then looked up again. Her heart jumped as she looked back at the mirror and recognized the distinctive headlights of a Corvette.

The car in the mirror passed under a street lamp and even in the sickly yellow lights of the interstate, she could see the pewter like color of the newest Corvette on the market, the ZR1.

Tina held her breath as the car accelerated, something she didn't expect to happen so swiftly at this speed. The car gained on her as if she was standing still and not breaking speed laws that would have the German Polizei even give chase. The pewter car pulled up next to her, as if forcing her to notice it.

_I'm going faster than some small planes need to take off and that thing just pulled up next to me like I'm parked on the side of the road,_ she thought, cold fear trickling up her spine. Her head felt as if it shrunk as she noticed the gunmetal wheels and near limo tint on the windows. She felt bile rise up as the window lowered just enough to show her that there was no driver or passenger; should she have been confusing it with another dark metallic pewter Corvette ZR1 that could accelerate much faster than the manufacturers specs stated. Heck, almost twice as fast. Unearthly really.

_That thing is supposed to be lying in a heap of hot metal right now..._ She spotted an exit just a few meters ahead and decided to head for the on ramp just after it. Tina hit the bikes brakes and slowed as much as she safely could without laying the bike down and made a hard right turn for the on ramp. Maelstrom... her mind hollered at her as she gunned the bike and went the wrong way down the on ramp. The light at the bottom was red but she ran it, almost getting hit by the only truck on the road. Her bike skidded as she pushed down on the rear brake and almost as quickly pulled back on the accelerator, rocking off down they empty road. The roar of Maelstrom's motor behind her as the ZR1 sped passed the stopped truck made her teeth ache.

_I'm on a bike being chased at speeds that the Air Force is more familiar with than CHP. This is insane. How the hell do I keep ending up in this sort of situation?_ Her thoughts growled out in tune with the bikes' high revving motor.

She had entered the industrial area down by the bay. Lots of places to hide, she smiled under her helmet. Tina turned again and headed into the crowded buildings that were the older area of industrial area. Asbestos filled hulks that no one had dared spend the money to clean up and had instead left to nature to destroy. Behind her the roar of the ZR1 could be heard as it raced down the canyon between massive abandoned warehouses and factories to catch her.

_Shit, shit, shit... I bet this is what Sam felt like while he got chased by Megatron._ She giggled, the stress catching up with her in the shape of rattled nerves.

Her black clad figure on a black painted bike drove a maze through the shadows created by the buildings, constantly checking behind her for the car. Nothing was back there.

Nothing could be heard either.

_Dammit_, she thought. He either left or was hiding somewhere. She slowed down as she passed by even darker alleys, not lit by the random security light here and there. Wait! Tina turned off the bike's headlights and started up the helmets internal display. She would use the dark of the alleys as a cover. Granted, it would be nothing for the Decepticon to find her but maybe riding the bike in darkness would save her just a few seconds by catching the predator off guard.

She noticed ahead that one of the buildings had an open garage bay and she drove the bike up onto the loading ramp. The building, like almost every other building around here, was definitely abandoned. Graffiti covered it's walls and random holes could be seen where the metal had either been removed or had fallen off from neglect. She drove the bike inside and shut it off. Surely, Maelstrom would see it's heat signature which would be much brighter than her own but she prayed that the mech wouldn't notice it too quick. Tina left the bike and ran towards the opposite end of the building.

She was almost halfway across the old warehouse's floor when an unexpected sound from her left caught her attention. She turned just a moment too late as Maelstrom's high beams blinded her, bearing down on her from the door through which she had just come. The car broke hard and began to go sideways, coming directly for her. Tina jumped out of the way but Maelstrom's back end caught her, striking her thigh and knocking her down.

She rolled across the dirty floor as the car transformed only a sprinting distance from her. She tried to see where Maelstrom was but bright spots played across her vision from being blinded. She swore as she got up and stumbled again and fell back down as pain shot down her leg from her thigh. Shuffling away like a scared crab in the sand, she tried to put as much distance between her and the dark silver robot as possible. All she would need is one second more than what she had right now.

Malestrom's lights shut off and the darkness encroached upon her. A hissing laughter echoed through the chasm of the empty warehouse. It chilled her blood all the way down to the marrow. _That's what the devil sounds like,_ she decided as she blinked the last of the spots away.

She raised the visor on her helmet and stared into the darkness of the, partially lit by the orange glow of the sky filtering in through dirty skylights, gaps in the walls and the open garage bay doors. The spots were dissipating and her eyes were adjusting to the limited light.

Between she and the exit loomed a menacing looking beast of a robot. His face shielded with what looked too much like a medieval Knight's helmet, his red optics glowed from behind slats in the shield over his optics. His armor seemed to jut out at severe angles that obviously not only protected him but would cause harm to anyone who was unfortunate to be pushed into or struck by him. From his shoulder to his feet, the mech looked as if he was made of knives and daggers. He looked painful but oddly sleek at the same time. In this form, there was no Corvette left to recognize, there was only angles of pain.

Still on the floor and looking up at the mech, Tina held out her hands and shot two beams of blue sparking energy at him. She pushed enough power out to disable him for an extremely long time, if no permanently.

Maelstrom only stood and laughed at her as the blue streaks dissipated on his frame, turning into little crackling sparks that seemed to disappear into gaps between armored plates.

"Beautiful light show, monkey." The mech's buzzing voice hissed at her. It's voice sounded like a million bees buzzing in unison. It didn't move, waiting for a response.

"I thought Mirage blew you up?" She growled as she got up and stood, her face twisting as she swallowed the pain in her leg. It wasn't as bad now. Thank god for quick healing, she thought as she faced the monster.

"Mirage over estimated himself... as usual." the voice buzzed.

Tina ignored it and stepped backward. Alarm rose as it took a slow, calculated step towards her. She took another, it followed, almost as if mimicking her.

She raised a hand and shot a bolt of energy at it and stared in complete disbelief as the energy broke up on the armor and seemed to be absorbed into the gaps between plates again.

"What the hell?" She muttered. She threw another only to have the same result. "That should have leveled you. Permanently."

"Special circumstances call for special abilities, don't they monkey?" It hissed again and raised a hand, sparks of white danced between it's fingers much like Tina's blue energy would do. The white sparked coalesced into a white ball in it's hand. With barely a movement of it's arm, it send the ball hurling towards Tina. She didn't duck but winced as she absorbed it.

Unlike normal energy or lightening, she felt the searing heat of Maelstrom's energy. It knocked the wind from her but didn't knock her down. The odd sensation made her grit her teeth as she threw twin bolts at it.

Maelstrom raised up it's hands and released it's own barrage of lightening at Tina. The two stood in a deadlock as blue and white bolts fought each other for ground, attempting to find their way to their target. Tina grunted under the strain of holding off Maelstrom's, stronger and painful energy.

"You'll give in sooner or later. Everyone does. Just like your precious Autobot." the thing said to her, it's million bee voice tearing at her ears. Everything about the mech was painful be it looking at it, hearing it or feeling it's onslaught of energy.

"Go frag yourself, "She groaned under strain.

"This is more fun." it said as it pushed harder. "Just like making sparkling's play of your Autobot pet was."

That was the breaking point and Tina lost it as something snapped between them. She fell back as she released every last piece of energy that she had spooled up inside of her. Like a supernova, the energy spread out passing through walls and continuing on to who knows where. Through the openings in the door less loading areas she could see the sky outside darken. She laughed but it died out as Maelstrom's bolt reached her, the searing pain tearing through.

She screamed and collapsed into a heap on the floor as the heat enveloped her. Fighting the onslaught of pain, Tina held herself up with one arm and panted, straining against the scorching heat that was torturing every nerve end in her body. Her head hung down, almost to the floor and she pushed her helmet off with her other hand. It was is he was purposely controlling the level of pain he inflicted upon her. Almost as if an internal furnace was getting turned up higher and higher with each strike.

"I suppose this is the part where you tell me that you're my father..." She chuckled choking down the pain as she pushed herself back up onto her knees, a bead of sweat dripped down into her eyes. Only at a moment like this could she think of Star Wars.

"No, you primate. This is the part where I tell you that we're leaving." The nightmarish looking robot buzzed down at her. She could almost hear what sounded like displeasure in it's tone.

"Stop calling me monkey and primate you walking toaster oven." She cackled harshly and then choked on the burning pain in her throat, the shock of what it had just said sinking in. "What do you mean 'leaving...'?" Tina spat at it.

The thing appeared to crack it's neck, a gesture which seemed oddly placed on the robot.

"We. Are. Leaving. Going away. Departing. Does your simple organic brain not comprehend this?" It bent down over her, glaring through the slats on it's optic shield. The humans disgusted him. They were a simple minded, smelly, messy, squishy, disease ridden scourge of a race. To see them eradicated would make him extremely happy but Starscream had specific orders. He was to deliver a message to this human. _That_ was it. He wasn't a messenger, a drone could have done that. Starscream wanted to show the human female that while her powers were unique and coveted, she was not invincible.

While the spiky mech's ability was the best suited for dealing with the human, it was useless on the scale of what the girl could do at full potential. Maelstrom was a weapon, not a power source. The fact that a water and protein based, simple life form with an equally simple brain was more valuable than him left him annoyed. Putting the fear in her and injuring not only her friends but her made him feel better and such he was reveling in the fact that he had beat her.

"Who is 'we' and leaving how?" She asked carefully, fiery anger underlying each word.

Maelstrom wanted to smash her head into the ground but that would mean Starscream would torture him slowly and extremely painfully until he finally died. Then the twisted Seeker would probably bring him back to life before his spark could pass on just to continue the torture. He grated his metal mouth plates before answering her swallowing the urge to destroy her like a bad meal.

"Our _kind_. The Decepticon's, you disgusting ape. We're leaving this mudball of diseased rot that you call a planet."

The human was obviously angered be it by his calling it a "...disgusting ape" or because of his message. Either way, angering it made him even happier.

Tina stared up at the thing in front of her, unable to categorize it as a male of female. It had simply become an it. It reminded her of a mechanical representation of a demon. She wanted to kill it but she couldn't even form a spark in her hand and there was no ambient energy around except what the robot before her had and she wasn't about to get close enough to find out. What it had just said had set her already hot blood boiling.

"Leaving? You don't get to leave. You're kind aren't afforded that luxury." She spat angrily as she rose up onto her feet pointing at it. Behind it something shifted in the shadows. behind them. She was sure Maelstrom heard it too, whatever it was, it was loud enough.

"You don't get to eviscerate my friends and leave." She was searching for energy still and found none and now she was hungry, starving actually. Hungry meant she hadn't enough energy in her body to create a spark from her own reserves. She was officially spent. She contemplated rushing the robot and stealing it's energy to use against it.

"You don't get to destroy my life... my friend's lives and just go." She hissed at it, pointing a hateful finger up at Maelstrom's hidden face, angry that she couldn't hurt it. "No. You have to stay. You all have to stay and see this through to the end."

"Yes we do and yes we will. Just with time." It said as it shot another searing bolt at her. This time he added enough to make sure the talking ape wouldn't continue to grate his audio circuits with it's shrieking excuse for a voice.

Unable to fight back, Tina caved and screamed out from the hot pain, which seemed even more invasive than the last strike. She tried not to hold her eyes tight and watch as the hateful mech transformed and took off out of one of the open doorways, the sound of it's engines ripping down the streets, into the distance.

She felt as if she had been tossed into the sun. This wasn't electrocution of any sort, it had to be different. Electrocution, even from a lightening bolt, feels as if it tickles a bit when it happens to her. After the bolt or whatever is shocking her passes, she feels as if she's had a massage. This feels as if some torture device, straight from the depths of Hell was hooked up to each individual nerve ending and prodding it with a hot poker. She was on fire and felt as if she was being turned inside out and unlike a normal electrocution, she could'nt absorb and use Maelstrom's energy. It was as if she only absorbed it, pain and torturous as it was.

Tina breathed deeply and slowly with purpose, relying on what yoga had taught her way back in college. She tried to control the pain with each breath and broke the patter with a sigh of relief as the sun hot scorching began to subside.

_Thank God the nasty ass floor is cold_, she thought as she pressed it her body into it, allowing it's coolness to chill her nerves and sooth her.

"Just because I'm hurting doesn't mean I'm hurt... Doesn't mean I didn't get what I deserved... no better and no worse..." She sung quietly into the darkness, her voice cracking from the pain. It was her favorite Coldplay song and had been stuck in her head since she woke up earlier. Funny how it seemed so fitting she thought as she laid on the cold floor.

Minutes, maybe hours, there was no way to tell in the inky darkness that engulfed her, passed with nothing to keep her company except the warm wind creaking through the rafters above. Tina rolled over on her stomach and pushed the helmet away from her. She laid her face down on the grimy yet cool concrete floor and let it's dull chill numb the remnants of Maelstrom's attack that still plagued her face. Tears began to stream down her cheeks as she felt as if her slim hold on reality was starting to slip again.

The pain waned away with the passing time and she came to the realization that no one was coming for her as she wiped a tear away from her eye and still hummed the song.

"ohhh I'm waiting till the firing stopped..." she sung quietly, a final lone tear running down her face.

"Well, I think I did loose this one. I can't be saved all the time." her voice echoed into the empty void that surrounded her. No cars could be heard outside. No helicopters or planes overhead, not even a cat in the alley crept by. She was entirely, utterly alone in the world. Tina strained to hear anything resembling life outside. She turned her head towards the open garage bay and saw not the typical orange glow of the city lights on the thick smog filled sky, but a darkness that finally turned her burning body cold.

_Something is very wrong,_ she thought as alarm crawled up her spine.

Something moved, causing her hair to stand up on end. She listened at the distinct sound of human footsteps shuffling towards her. Then just as quickly as she heard them, disappeared.

_Oh shit..._

Tina turned over on her back to get up and almost jumped into the concrete beneath her as a flashlight lit showing a face hidden by a solid ski mask with an odd set of goggles over the eyes, leaned over her.

"Shhhhhh." The face said in a calm whisper as a finger raised up to where his lips would be. "I'm here to help you, Tina."

She felt her reality slip even more

_I've finally lost my mind....._

* * *

Lost explains exactly what Tina is currently going through in life. If you haven't heard the song, listen to it. If you don't know the lyrics they are 100% as she deals with an uncertain future.

Stick around for a reappearance of a character who was introduced very early on in the story who will finally have a role in it.


End file.
